Les plus lus ▸
Ancient Artifact
there is a theory that says
just a breath away
is an alternate universe.
a universe where there is a me
who is happy and safe and warm.
a universe where there is a me
who has never looked over her shoulder.
a universe where there is a me
in her own home with her own family.
somehow, i
love and hate
this theory.
The universe is liquid;
it fits any container.
The universe fits
in a field
and we play a pick-up
game of football.
The universe fits
in a blade of grass on a field,
drinking the dew that
forms on its shaded face.
The universe fits
in a football;
what joy it is to be
kicked around!
The universe fits
in the cells of a blade of grass,
THAT music always round me, unceasing, unbeginning—yet long untaught I did not hear;
But now the chorus I hear, and am elated;
A tenor, strong, ascending, with power and health, with glad notes of day-break I hear,
A soprano, at intervals, sailing buoyantly over the tops of immense waves,
A transparent bass, shuddering lusciously under and through the universe,
The triumphant tutti—the funeral wailings, with sweet flutes and violins—all
these I
fill myself with;
I hear not the volumes of sound merely—I am moved by the exquisite meanings,
I listen to the different voices winding in and out, striving, contending with fiery
vehemence
to excel each other in emotion;
ON the beach at night alone,
As the old mother sways her to and fro, singing her husky song,
As I watch the bright stars shining—I think a thought of the clef of the universes, and of
the future.
A VAST SIMILITUDE interlocks all,
All spheres, grown, ungrown, small, large, suns, moons, planets, comets, asteroids,
All the substances of the same, and all that is spiritual upon the same,
All distances of place, however wide,
All distances of time—all inanimate forms,
All Souls—all living bodies, though they be ever so different, or in different worlds,
All gaseous, watery, vegetable, mineral processes—the fishes, the brutes,
All men and women—me also;
And who feels discord now or sorrow?
Love is the universe to-day--
These are the slaves of dim to-morrow,
Darkening Life's labyrinthine way.