“It is the nature of stone
to be satisfied.
It is the nature of water
to want to be somewhere else.”
– Mary Oliver
We walked on windswept dunes,
over flower-strewn meadows
where the sound of birds
and flowing creeks
gave the air its beauty.
You asked “what is the meaning”
and with you I remembered
that beauty is its own meaning,
and it is for beauty that we have come,
and for beauty that we lie down,
and for beauty that we hunger
and do not rest.
And when we rest it is for beauty
for that is our nature.
The way sandstone
folds around us,
the faces hidden
in the shapes and hollows.
The music of the sea
and the way the wind
rises in the trees
and sets the island atremble.
And again the why
and again the meaning,
on hummingbird’s wing,
starling’s flight
and the complaint of crow.
We see hands of the invisible
behind every leaf
as our bark sloughs off
and our bones slowly crumble.
We speak to the stars
and to them we drink deep.
We’re not afraid
of winter storms
and their terrible darkness,
of the fire ant’s bite
or smell of the tide.
Or the waves pitch and toss
that loosen our stomachs
as we ride out the sea
and the clouds as they smile.
Wherever you travelled
you changed the earth
by the gifts of your sight.
In debt to your shaping
when my time comes,
beauty I will remember
and to beauty let go.
Reading of “To Beauty I Let Go” with music by Snowy White.
Rousing … as all life, drawn to beauty.
Indeed, we came here with eyes for creating and seeing the beauty of our creations. What other being on earth would sit and gaze at a beautiful sunset in awe?! I really love the beauty of your poem, noble poet.
Thank you, Don! Yes, the hunger and the comfort, the intrinsic meaning…
I’m with you, Don, with every gust and whisper of my spirit — it is for beauty we have come. It is for beauty we maintain the humble artist’s atelier of our bodies, and it is for beauty we will move on when the time comes.
‘For the beauty of the earth’
Words to an old hymn I remember
Don, this poem sounds like you have, at least in your heart, dedicated it to someone. For me, it is a love poem, and it soothes my being on so many levels. Thank you.
Today, while the beholder’s eye in me destines itself, merely for Beauty’s sake alone, to envision that Beauty in everyone and everything in my world, I deeply rest the sublime assurance of Heaven and Earth being One.
You speak of the grand circle of life in this luscious poem………beauty given, accepted in delight and continued by our creative, loving sight! I was moved beyond words……….thank you!
Don — Thank you for this. It’s one of your very best. Professor Joe Evans loved these lines from William Blake: “To see a World in a grain of sand and a Heaven in a wildflower.” Amen to that. Mike
I am fascinated by the relationship between the Creation with all its many beauties and the nature of my consciousness full of appreciation for form, color, and relationship at once both tangible and untouchable. Beauty is the indispensable core of all Being defining the very nature of reality. It is through appreciation of the ubiquitous beauty of the universe that I worship the Creator of All.
So amazing when a modicum of Design shows her face the unending flow of Beauty comes rushing in long awaited innocence.
exquisite Don. …”and the muse on nimble toes follow still where beauty goes”