Pearls from the Pensées de Blaise Pascal

Quelques Pensées
de Blaise Pascal (1623-1662)


70. La Nature ne peut s'arrêter aux extrêmes. La nature nous a si bien mis au milieu que si nous changeons un côté de la balance, nous changeons aussi l'autre.

183. Nous courons sans souci dans le précipice, après avoir mis quelque chose devant nous pour nous empêcher de le voir.

295. « Ce chien est à moi, disaient ces pauvres enfants; c’est là ma place au soleil. » Voilà le commencement et l’image de l’usurpation de toute la terre.

320. Les choses du monde les plus déraisonnables deviennent les plus raisonnables à cause du dérèglement des hommes.

357. Qu’il y a loin de la connaissance de Dieu à l’aimer.

378. C’est sortir de l’humanité que de sortir du milieu. La grandeur de l’âme humaine consiste à savoir s’y tenir.

427. L’homme ne sait à quel rang se mettre. Il est visiblement égaré, et tombé de son vrai lieu sans le pouvoir retrouver. Il le cherche partout avec inquiétude et sans succès dans des ténèbres impénétrables.

431. Ne sachant de nous-mêmes qui nous sommes, nous ne pouvons l’apprendre que de Dieu.

465. Les Stoïques disent: « Rentrez au dedans de vous-mêmes; c’est là que vous trouverez le repos. » Et cela n’est pas vrai.
   Les autres disent: « Sortez en dehors: recherchez le bonheur en vous divertissant. » Et cela n’est pas vrai.
   Le bonheur n’est ni hors de nous, ni dans nous; il est en Dieu, et hors et dans nous.

472. La volonté propre ne satisfera jamais, quand elle aurait le pouvoir de tout ce qu’elle veut; mais on est satisfait dès l’instant qu’on y renonce. Sans elle, on ne peut être malcontent; par elle, on ne peut être content.

499. Dieu peut du mal tirer le bien, sans Dieu on tire le mal du bien.

549. « Meilleur on est, pire on devient, si on attribue à soi-même ce par quoi on est bon »  Bernard de Clairvaux

557. Il est vrai que Dieu se cache à ceux qui le tentent, et qu’il se découvre à ceux qui le cherchent.

580. La nature a des perfections pour montrer qu’elle est l’image de Dieu, et des défauts, pour montrer qu’elle n’en est que l’image.

583. Les malins sont des gens qui connaissent la vérité, mais qui ne la soutiennent qu’autant que leur intérêt s’y rencontre; mais, hors de là, ils l’abandonnent.

648. Deux erreurs: 1° prendre tout littéralement. 2° prendre tout spirituellement.

Pearls from the Confessions of Augustine

From The Confessions
by Augustine of Hippo (354-430)


Thou awakest us to delight in Thy praise, O God; for Thou madest us for Thyself, and our heart is restless, until it rests in Thee.

***

Narrow is the mansion of my soul; enlarge Thou it, that Thou mayest enter in. It is ruinous; repair Thou it.

***

I, poor wretch, foamed like a troubled sea, following the rushing of my own tide, forsaking Thee, and exceeded all Thy limits; yet I escaped not Thy scourges. For what mortal can? For Thou wert ever with me mercifully rigorous, and besprinkling with most bitter alloy all my unlawful pleasures: that I might seek pleasures without alloy. But where to find such, I could not discover, save in Thee, O Lord, who teachest by sorrow, and woundest us, to heal; and killest us, lest we die from Thee.

***

Behold, Thy servant, fleeing from his Lord, and obtaining a shadow. With Thee is rest entire, and life imperturbable. Whoso enters into Thee, enters into the joy of his Lord: and shall not fear, and shall do excellently in the All-Excellent. I sank away from Thee, and I wandered, O my God, too much astray from Thee my stay, in these days of my youth, and I became to myself a barren land.

***

I have met with many that would deceive; who would be deceived, no one. Men love Truth when she enlightens, they hate her when she reproves. For since they would not be deceived, and would deceive, they love her when she discovers herself unto them, and hate her when she discovers them. Whence she shall so repay them, that they who would not be made manifest by her, she both against their will makes manifest, and herself becometh not manifest unto them. Thus, thus, yea thus doth the mind of man, thus blind and sick, foul and ill-favoured, wish to be hidden, but that aught should be hidden from it, it wills not. But the contrary is requited it, that itself should not be hidden from the Truth; but the Truth is hid from it. Yet even thus miserable, it had rather joy in truths than in falsehoods. Happy then will it be, when, no distraction interposing, it shall joy in that only Truth, by Whom all things are true.

***

Every where, O Truth, dost Thou give audience to all who ask counsel of Thee, and at once answerest all, though on manifold matters they ask Thy counsel. Clearly dost Thou answer, though all do not clearly hear. All consult Thee on what they will, though they hear not always what they will. He is Thy best servant, O Truth, who looks not so much to hear that from Thee which himself willeth, as rather to will that, which from Thee he heareth.

***

Too late loved I Thee, O Thou Beauty of ancient days, yet ever new! too late I loved Thee! And behold, Thou wert within, and I without, and there I searched for Thee; deformed I, plunging amid those fair forms which Thou hadst made. Thou wert with me, but I was not with Thee. Things held me far from Thee, which, unless they were in Thee, were not at all. Thou calledst, and shoutedst, and burstest my deafness. Thou flashedst, shonest, and scatteredst my blindness. Thou breathedst odours, and I drew in breath and panted for Thee. I tasted, and hungered and thirsted. Thou touchedst me, and I burned for Thy peace.

***

When I shall with my whole self cleave to Thee, I shall nowhere have sorrow or labour; and my life shall wholly live, as wholly full of Thee. But now since whom Thou fillest, Thou liftest up, because I am not full of Thee I am a burden to myself. Lamentable joys strive with joyous sorrows: and on which side is the victory, I know not. Woe is me! Lord, have pity on me. My evil sorrows strive with my good joys; and on which side is the victory, I know not. Woe is me! Lord, have pity on me. Woe is me! lo! I hide not my wounds; Thou art the Physician, I the sick; Thou merciful, I miserable.

***

In the Eternal nothing passeth, but the whole is present; whereas no time is all at once present: and all time past, is driven on by time to come, and all to come followeth upon the past; and all past and to come, is created, and flows out of that which is ever present.

***

Nor doth Thou by time, precede time: else shouldest Thou not precede all times. But Thou precedest all things past, by the sublimity of an ever-present eternity; and surpassest all future because they are future, and when they come, they shall be past; but Thou art the Same, and Thy years fail not. Thy years neither come nor go; whereas ours both come and go, that they all may come. Thy years stand together, because they do stand; nor are departing thrust out by coming years, for they pass not away; but ours shall all be, when they shall no more be. Thy years are one day; and Thy day is not daily, but Today, seeing Thy Today gives not place unto to-morrow, for neither doth it replace yesterday. Thy Today, is Eternity; therefore didst Thou beget The Coeternal, to whom Thou saidst, This day have I begotten Thee. Thou hast made all things; and before all times Thou art: neither in any time was time not.

***

Wheresoever then is whatsoever is, it is only as present. Although when past facts are related, there are drawn out of the memory, not the things themselves which are past, but words which, conceived by the images of the things, they, in passing, have through the senses left as traces in the mind. Thus my childhood, which now is not, is in time past, which now is not: but now when I recall its image, and tell of it, I behold it in the present, because it is still in my memory. Whether there be a like cause of foretelling things to come also; that of things which as yet are not, the images may be perceived before, already existing, I confess, O my God, I know not. This indeed I know, that we generally think before on our future actions, and that that forethinking is present, but the action whereof we forethink is not yet, because it is to come. Which, when we have set upon, and have begun to do what we were forethinking, then shall that action be; because then it is no longer future, but present.

***

Which way soever then this secret fore-perceiving of things to come be; that only can be seen, which is. But what now is, is not future, but present. When then things to come are said to be seen, it is not themselves which as yet are not (that is, which are to be), but their causes perchance or signs are seen, which already are. Therefore they are not future but present to those who now see that, from which the future, being foreconceived in the mind, is foretold. Which fore-conceptions again now are; and those who foretell those things, do behold the conceptions present before them.


***

What now is clear and plain is, that neither things to come nor past are. Nor is it properly said, “there be three times, past, present, and to come”: yet perchance it might be properly said, “there be three times; a present of things past, a present of things present, and a present of things future.” For these three do exist in some sort, in the soul, but otherwhere do I not see them; present of things past, memory; present of things present, perception; present of things future, expectation.


***

Oh how high art Thou, and yet the humble in heart are Thy dwelling-place; for Thou raisest up those that are bowed down, and they fall not, whose elevation Thou art.


***

Most times, is the poverty of human understanding copious in words, because enquiring hath more to say than discovering, and demanding is longer than obtaining, and our hand that knocks, hath more work to do, than our hand that receives.


***

O let the Light, the Truth, the Light of my heart, not mine own darkness, speak unto me. I fell off into that, and became darkened; but even thence, even thence I loved Thee. I went astray, and remembered Thee. I heard Thy voice behind me, calling to me to return, and scarcely heard it, through the tumultuousness of the enemies of peace. And now, behold, I return in distress and panting after Thy fountain. Let no man forbid me! of this will I drink, and so live. Let me not be mine own life; from myself I lived ill, death was I to myself; and I revive in Thee. Do Thou speak unto me, do Thou discourse unto me. I have believed Thy Books, and their words be most full of mystery.


***

I call upon Thee, O my God, my mercy, Who createdst me, and forgottest not me, forgetting Thee. I call Thee into my soul which, by the longing Thyself inspirest into her, Thou preparest for Thee.


Translated by Edward B. Pusey, D.D. (1921)

Narada Bhakti Sutra

Bhakti Sutra
An Ancient Hindu Scripture on Spiritual Devotion Attributed to the Legendary Sage Narada


1. Now, with a favourable spirit, we shall expound on Bhakti – spiritual devotion.

2. The nature of spiritual devotion is the supreme love for God.

3. Its essence is the nectar of immortality.

4. Obtaining spiritual devotion, a person becomes a perfected one, beyond death and fully satisfied.

5. When spiritual devotion is achieved, all desires such as grief, hate, fleeting happiness or desire for personal gain drop away.

6. Spiritual devotion is the realization of one’s true Self. The spiritual devotee becomes intoxicated and overwhelmed with the bliss of union with the supreme.

7. This bliss does not arise from desire, but from one’s inmost nature, which is stillness.

8. Inner stillness consecrates the required functions that arise from one’s position in life.

9. Inner stillness, furthermore, requires a single-hearted intention, and disinterest in what is antagonistic to spiritual devotion.

10. When one is single-hearted, one relinquishes finding security in anything other than God. This does not mean that one abandons one’s duty in the world but that one does one’s duty as an act of worship for God.

12. During the performance of required duties and responsibilities the devotee must stay committed to righteous living.

13. To do otherwise is to risk a fall from grace.

14. In addition to performing one’s required duties, the spiritual devotee should also do what is necessary to maintaining a healthy body.

15. There are different points of view on how one should approach spiritual devotion.

16. Sage Vyasa described it as an intense longing to perform ritual worship.

17. Sage Garga taught that it is expressed through the discussion of spiritual themes.

18. Sage Sandilya explained it as the perpetual delight in knowing one’s true Self.

19. However, Sage Narada teaches that spiritual devotion is truly expressed by sanctifying all activities and by experiencing supreme anguish at forgetting the Beloved even for a moment.

20. There do exist examples of this spiritual devotion.

21. Such as the gopis of Vraja – the shepherdesses who were completely filled with love for Krishna.

22. Even in the highest level of spiritual devotion one should remain mindful and not forget the glory of the Beloved, in order to avoid degrading the relationship.

23. If that mindfulness is forsaken, what exists is selfish passion.

24. In selfish passion, one’s personal happiness is independent of the happiness of the Beloved.

25. Spiritual devotion is superior even to all other forms of yoga.

26. For their ultimate aim is to produce spiritual devotion.

27. Spiritual devotion is superior because the Supreme Lord is attracted to humble love and is repulsed by egoism.

28. Some teach that spiritual devotion is a product of wisdom.

29. Others claim that wisdom and devotion depend on one another.

30. According to Narada, spiritual devotion is its own fruit.

31. King, food and home can be used as images.

32. Not by wisdom is one made a king, is one satisfied, or is hunger appeased. Knowledge of itself is not a path to satisfaction.

33. Therefore, those who aspire to liberation regard spiritual devotion as the only goal worth attaining.

34. Great teachers sing of the means of developing spiritual devotion.

35. It is developed through non-attachment to the material world and its desires.

36. By unceasing worship while in the world.

37. As well as by singing and listening to the attributes of God.

38. This leads to the greatest of blessings.

39. Oneness with the seed of all existence is difficult to attain, for it is incomprehensible and without fault or error.

40. Only by God’s grace is it attainable.

41. The grace of God allows the devotee to achieve oneness and to understand that there is no separateness from God, but only the illusion of separateness.

42. Cultivate that grace alone; cultivate that grace alone.

43. Cultivate the grace of oneness and avoid the illusion of separateness from God.

44. Separateness from God is the root cause of selfish desire, anger, forgetting the true Self and the loss of all that truly matters.

45. What begins as a small wave of delusion becomes an ocean of illusion.

46. Who can cross this great ocean? Only the one who can forsake all attachments can cross the great ocean of illusion and become a servant of the great source of all souls.

47. When one embraces inner solitude with God and breaks free from the threefold bondage of the world (impurity, lust and laziness), only then can one be free from the delusion that owning things causes happiness.

48. By avoiding attachment to personal gain and the bondage of the ego, the devotee becomes free from the illusion of dualities.

49. Breaking free from the limited view of organized religion is the key to supreme and unceasing longing for God.

50. Only then can he cross the great ocean of illusion and help the world to cross also.

51. The essential nature of love surpasses description.

52. It is like a person who cannot speak but can taste fine foods.

53. Love abides where it is made welcome.

54. Impurity, lust and laziness crowds out true love. By removing earthly desires, the devotee makes room for the limitless love of God to rush in as an exquisitely subtle experience that expands forever.

55. After achieving the boundless love of God, the devotee sees only love, hears only love, speaks only of love and is consumed by the love of God.

56. There are three types of devotion that appear to be real but end in distress.

57. The first is the selfishness of organized religion. It has a form of godliness but leads to conflict. A better path, but still inferior, is the fervent ones who battle evil for God.

58. They seek to right wrongs but ultimately they are frustrated.

59. Better still is the devotion of the compassionate ones who seek peace and happiness for all.

60. But the ultimate devotion is the total submission to God. Its superiority is self-evident for it is free from all distress and is filled with supreme joy.

61. A devotee can be in the world but not of the world. This is accomplished by performing one’s social duties as acts of devotion to God. In this way there can be no anxiety about worldly losses.

62. The devotee does not become anxious free by forsaking duties but by performing duties without attachment to their fruits. It has been said: “before enlightenment, chop wood and carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood and carry water.”

63. The devotee is in the world but in order to remain undefiled by the world the devotee must avoid being entertained by stories of sex, power and wealth.

64. Additionally, egoism, pride and impure thoughts must be avoided.

65. Surrendering to God involves rising above all of these as one performs social responsibilities, even when selfish desire, anger and egotism are present.

66. The devotee must rise above the three inferior forms of devotion mentioned before, and worship God as an eternally devoted servant would.

67. Foremost among devotees are those who are one-pointed.

68. They purify themselves and their communities by their tear-choked conversations. So devoted are they that their hair stands on end and tears course down their cheeks.

69. Their holiness establishes sacred sites and inspires holy scripture.

70. They are full to overflowing with the Love of God.

71. Their ancestors rejoice, angels dance and the world is blessed by a master of truth.

72-73. Since they belong to God, they transcend distinctions of ancestry, intellect, appearance, class, wealth, occupation, and other social realities.

74. Intellectual explanations should not be relied upon to achieve oneness with God.

75. They can go on forever and achieve nothing definite.

76. Sacred scripture should be consulted and meditated upon. The purpose of spiritual texts is to inspire the student to spiritual practice. Knowledge of scripture, however, is not to be considered a substitute for dedicated devotion to God.

77. Non-attachment to happiness or sadness, pleasure or pain, worldly gain or personal concerns with inspired constancy will cause the devotee never to experience a useless moment.

78. Non-violence, truthfulness, purity, compassion, faith in inspired scripture and personal integrity are to be cultivated rigorously.

79. One can be free of anxiety by worshipping God alone.

80. Through sincere veneration, God swiftly becomes manifest in the awareness of the devotee.

81. In all the threefold reality, spiritual devotion alone is of the greatest significance.

82. Spiritual devotion is singular, though it manifests as eleven forms: cherishing the glorious qualities of God, cherishing the spiritual forms, cherishing ritual worship, cherishing constant remembrance of the Beloved, cherishing selfless acts of service, cherishing God as a dear friend, cherishing God with parental affection, cherishing God like a loving wife, cherishing knowledge of the true Self, cherishing oneness with the Supreme Lord, cherishing the supreme surrender to God.

83. There are thirteen teachers who have taught the Bhakti path of spiritual devotion without fear of ridicule.

84. Those who fully believe and follow these divinely inspired teachings as taught by Narada will achieve the goal of being one with the Beloved. Follow these teachings and become one with the Beloved.


Translated by Prem Prakash

Pearls from the Sonnets of e. e. cummings

Selected Sonnets
of Edward Estlin Cummings (1894-1962)


From XLI Poems (1925)

Sonnet I

if learned darkness from our searched world


should wrest the rare unwisdom of thy eyes,
and if thy hands flowers of silence curled

upon a wish,to rapture should surprise

my soul slowly which on thy beauty dreams
(proud through the cold perfect night whisperless


to mark,how that asleep whitely she seems


whose lips the whole of life almost do guess)


if god should send the morning;and before
my doubting window leaves softly to stir,
of thoughtful trees whom night hath pondered o’er
—and frailties of dimension to occur

about us
                  and birds known,scarcely to sing
(heart,could we bear the marvel of this thing?)



From W [ViVa] (1931)

LXVIII

but if a living dance upon dead minds
why,it is love;but at the earliest spear
of sun perfectly should disappear
moon’s utmost magic,or stones speak or one
name control more incredible splendor than
our merely universe,love’s also there:
and being here imprisoned,tortured here
love everywhere exploding maims and blinds
(but surely does not forget,perish,sleep
cannot be photographed,measured;disdains
the trivial labelling of punctual brains...
—Who wields a poem huger than the grave?
from only Whom shall time no refuge keep
though all the weird worlds must be opened?

                                                                                     )Love


From No Thanks (1935)

LXV

if night’s mostness(and whom did merely day
close)
            opens
                          if more than silence silent are more
flowering than stars whitely births of mind

if air is throbbing prayers whom kneeling eyes
(until perfectly their imperfect gaze
climbs this steep fragrance of eternity)
world by than worlds immenser world will pray

so(unlove disappearing)only your
less than guessed more than beauty begins the
most not imagined life adventuring
who would feel if spring’s least breathing should cause
a colour
                 and i do not know him
                                                              (and

while behind death’s death whenless voices sing
everywhere your selves himself recognize)


From 50 Poems (1940)

L

what freedom’s not some under’s mere above
but breathing yes which fear will never no?
measureless our pure living complete love
whose doom is beauty and its fate to grow

shall hate confound the wise? doubt blind the brave?
does mask wear face?have singings gone to say?
here youngest selves yet younger selves conceive
here’s music’s music and the day of day

are worlds collapsing?any was a glove
but i’m and you are actual either hand
is when for sale?forever is to give
and on forever’s very now we stand

nor a first rose explodes but shall increase
whole truthful infinite immediate us


From 1 x 1 [One Times One] (1944)

XVI

one’s not half two.   It’s two are halves of one:
which halves reintegrating,shall occur
no death and any quantity;but than
all numerable mosts the actual more

minds ignorant of stern miraculous
this every truth—beware of heartless them
(given the scalpel,they dissect a kiss;
or,sold the reason,they undream a dream)

one is the song which fiends and angels sing:
all murdering lies by mortals told make two.
Let liars wilt,repaying life they’re loaned;
we(by a gift called dying born)must grow

deep in dark least ourselves remembering
love only rides his year.
                                            All lose,whole find

XXXIV

nothing false and possible is love
(who’s imagined,therefore limitless)
love’s to giving as to keeping’s give;
as yes is to if,love is to yes

must’s a schoolroom in the month of may:
life’s the deathboard where all now turns when
(love’s a universe beyond obey
or command,reality or un-)

proudly depths above why’s first because
(faith’s last doubt and humbly heights below)
kneeling,we—true lovers—pray that us
will ourselves continue to outgrow

all whose mosts if you have known and i’ve
only we our least begin to guess

XXXVI

true lovers in each happening of their hearts
live longer than all which and every who;
despite what fear denies,what hope asserts,
what falsest both disprove by proving true

(all doubts,all certainties,as villains strive
and heroes through the mere mind’s poor pretend
—grim comics of duration:only love
immortally occurs beyond the mind)

such a forever is love’s any now
and her each here is such an everywhere,
even more true would truest lovers grow
if out of midnight dropped more suns than are

(yes;and if time should ask into his was
all shall,their eyes would never miss a yes)

LII

life is more true than reason will deceive
(more secret or than madness did reveal)
deeper is life than lose:higher than have
—but beauty is more each than living’s all

multiplied with infinity sans if
the mightiest meditations of mankind
cancelled are by one merely opening leaf
(beyond whose nearness there is no beyond)

or does some littler bird than eyes can learn
look up to silence and completely sing?
futures are obsolete;pasts are unborn
(here less than nothing’s more than everything)

death,as men call him,ends what they call men
—but beauty is more now than dying’s when


From XAIPE (1950)

V

swim so now million many worlds in each

least less than particle of perfect dark—
how should a loudness called mankind unteach
whole infinite the who of life’s life(hark

what silence)?” “Worlds? o no:i’m certain they’re
(look again)flowers.” “Don’t worlds open and
worlds close?” “Worlds do,but differently;or

as if worlds wanted us to understand
they’d never close(and open)if that fool
called everyone(or you or i)were wise.”

“You mean worlds may have better luck,some day?”
“Or worse!poor worlds;i mean they’re possible
—but” lifting “flowers” more all stars than eyes

“only are quite what worlds merely might be

XX

when serpents bargain for the right to squirm
and the sun strikes to gain a living wage—
when thorns regard their roses with alarm
and rainbows are insured against old age

when every thrush may sing no new moon in
if all screech-owls have not okayed his voice
—and any wave signs on the dotted line
or else an ocean is compelled to close

when the oak begs permission of the birch
to make an acorn—valleys accuse their
mountains of having altitude—and march
denounces april as a saboteur

then we’ll believe in that incredible
unanimal mankind(and not until)

LI

who were so dark of heart they might not speak,
a little innocence will make them sing;
teach them to see who could not learn to look
—from the reality of all nothing

will actually lift a luminous whole;
turn sheer despairing to most perfect gay,
nowhere to here,never to beautiful:
a little innocence creates a day.

And something thought or done or wished without
a little innocence,although it were
as red as terror and as green as fate,
greyly shall fail and dully disappear—

but the proud power of himself death immense
is not so as a little innocence

LXV

i thank You God for most this amazing
day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky;and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes

(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun’s birthday;this is the birth
day of life and of love and wings;and of the gay
great happening inimitably earth)

how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any—lifted from the no
of all nothing—human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?

(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)


From 95 Poems (1958)

III

now air is air and thing is thing:no bliss

of heavenly earth beguiles our spirits, whose
miraculously disenchanted eyes

live the magnificent honesty of space.

Mountains are mountains now;skies now are skies—
and such a sharpening freedom lifts our blood
as if whole supreme this complete doubtless

universe we’d(and we alone had)made

—yes;or as if our souls,awakened from
summer’s green trance,would not adventure soon
a deeper magic:that white sleep wherein
all human curiosity we’ll spend
(gladly,as lovers must)immortal and

the courage to receive time’s mightiest dream

II

in time’s a noble mercy of proportion
with generosities beyond believing
(though flesh and blood accuse him of coercion
or mind and soul convict him of deceiving)

whose ways are neither reasoned nor unreasoned,
his wisdom cancels conflict and agreement
—saharas have their centuries;ten thousand
of which are smaller than a rose’s moment

there’s time for laughing and there’s time for crying—
for hoping for despair for peace for longing
—a time for growing and a time for dying:
a night for silence and a day for singing

but more than all(as all your more than eyes
tell me)there is a time for timelessness

LXIX

over us if(as what was dusk becomes

darkness)innumerably singular
strictly immeasurable nowhere flames
—its farthest silence nearer than each our

heartbeat—believe that love(and only love)

comprehends huger easily beyonds
than timelessly alive all glories we’ve
agreed with nothing deeper than our minds

to call the stars.   And(darling)never fear:

love,when such marvels vanish,will include
—there by arriving magically here—
an everywhere which you’ve and i’ve agreed
and we’ve(with one last more than kiss)to call

most the amazing miracle of all

LXXIII

let’s,from some loud unworld’s most rightful wrong

climbing,my love(till mountains speak the truth)
enter a cloverish silence of thrushsong

(and more than every miracle’s to breathe)

wounded us will becauseless ultimate
earth accept and primeval whyless sky;
healing our by immeasurable night

spirits and with illimitable day

(shrived of that nonexistence millions call
life,you and i may reverently share
the blessed eachness of all beautiful
selves wholly which and innocently are)

seeming’s enough for slaves of space and time
—ours is the now and here of freedom.   Come

LXXVI

these from my mother’s greatgrandmother’s rosebush white

roses are probably the least probable roses
of her improbable world and without any doubt
of impossible ours
                                  —God’s heaven perhaps comprises
poems(my mother’s greatgrandmother surely would know)
of purest poem and glories of sheerest glory
a little more always less believably so
than(how should even omnipotent He feel sorry
while these were blossoming)roses which really are dreams
of roses—
                        “and who” i asked my love “could begin
to imagine quite such eagerly innocent whoms
of merciful sweetness except Himself?”
                                                                        —“noone
unless it’s a smiling” she told me “someone”(and smiled)

“who holds Himself as the little white rose of a child”

LXXVIII

all nearness pauses,while a star can grow

all distance breathes a final dream of bells;
perfectly outlined against afterglow
are all amazing the and peaceful hills

(not where not here but neither’s blue most both)

and history immeasurably is
wealthier by a single sweet day’s death:
as not imagined secrecies comprise

goldenly huge whole the upfloating moon.

Time’s a strange fellow;
                                             more he gives than takes
(and he takes all)nor any marvel finds
quite disappearance but some keener makes
losing,gaining
                               —love! if a world ends

more than all worlds begin to(see?)begin

XCI

unlove’s the heavenless hell and homeless home

of knowledgeable shadows(quick to seize
each nothing which all soulless wraiths proclaim
substance;all heartless spectres,happiness)

lovers alone wear sunlight. The whole truth

not hid by matter;not by mind revealed
(more than all dying life,all living death)
and never which has been or will be told

sings only—and all lovers are the song.

Here(only here)is freedom:always here
no then of winter equals now of spring;
but april’s day transcends november’s year

(eternity being so sans until
twice i have lived forever in a smile)

XCII

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
                                                                    i fear
no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)


From 73 Poems (1963)

XXXII

all which isn’t singing is mere talking
and all talking’s talking to oneself
(whether that oneself be sought or seeking
master or disciple sheep or wolf)

gush to it as deity or devil
—toss in sobs and reasons threats and smiles
name it cruel fair or blessed evil—
it is you(né i)nobody else

drive dumb mankind dizzy with haranguing
—you are deafened every mother’s son—
all is merely talk which isn’t singing
and all talking’s to oneself alone

but the very song of(as mountains
feel and lovers)singing is silence

XXXIX

white guardians of the universe of sleep

safely may by imperishable your
glory escorted through infinite countries be
my darling(open the very secret of hope
to her eyes,not any longer blinded with
a world;and let her heart’s each whisper wear

all never guessed unknowable most joy)

faithfully blossoming beyond to breathe
suns of the night,bring this beautiful
wanderer home to a dream called time:and give
herself into the mercy of that star,
if out of climbing whom begins to spill
such golden blood as makes his moon alive

sing more will wonderfully birds than are

XLV

what time is it?it is by every star
a different time,and each most falsely true;
or so subhuman superminds declare

—nor all their times encompass me and you:

when are we never,but forever now
(hosts of eternity; not guests of seem)
believe me,dear,clocks have enough to do

without confusing timelessness and time.

Time cannot children,poets,lovers tell—
measure imagine,mystery,a kiss
—not though mankind would rather know than feel;

mistrusting utterly that timelessness

whose absence would make your whole life and my
(and infinite our)merely to undie

LXXIII

all worlds have halfsight,seeing either with

life’s eye(which is if things seem spirits)or
(if spirits in the guise of things appear)
death’s:any world must always half perceive.

Only whose vision can create the whole

(being forever born a foolishwise
proudhumble citizen of ecstasies
more steep than climb can time with all his years)

he’s free into the beauty of the truth;

and strolls the axis of the universe
—love.   Each believing world denies,whereas
your lover(looking through both life and death)
tunelessly celebrates the merciful

wonder no world deny may or believe