RHYTHM OF LIFE
Wait, have you not understood?
Feel how the earth now warms you
when night has passed.
Time stands still ..
Sand slips through your fingers,
and in your hand still rests
the crystal glow
that once lit up your day.
You are still connected
to the current of your existence.
When will you understand?
It is not yet too late
to let your spirit fly.
Listen now
to how your wishes and desires
perform their symphonies,
how heavy drumbeats
in your heart's orchestra
shake the ground beneath your feet
to life once more.
Let the strings sing!
And pluck all the chords
of your soul ..
Do you now understand?
Painting Hope by George Frederick Watts, 1886
What is so remarkable about these lines is the way in which they seem to work as an incantation, the way in which their rhythm keeps in step with what the words describe. To read the poem is to feel that we are acting upon what it urges us to do, to respond to our own pulse of life which, even when it feels that it is dimly-burning, can still be urged into new and vigorous life once more.
ReplyDeleteDavid, you really touched some strings in me with your comment!
ReplyDeleteHello beautiful friend...your poems always speak to my soul and spark my heart..your words move me...this carries a gentle-magic, and is deeply beautiful and inspiring. The painting you chose for this post is one of my favorites and I have this in my meditation room. HUgs and blessings...you are a magical soul!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for your kind words, dear Victoria. I am deeply touched to read that my poems speak to your soul. Poems come from an undiscovered land, and our souls seem to desire to want to find that land. Your own art has the same effect on me as my poems have on you! Most inspiring.
ReplyDeleteAnd how wonderful that Watts' painting speaks to you as it does to me - and I remember hearing that it is President Obama's favourite painting as well!
'Hope' indeed.
Hugs ♥
This is such a beautiful and inspiring poem that touches upon the incredible power of life and its expression and creativity through form. The song and dance of the universe are the expressions of life. The drum beat is the systolic and diastolic rhythm, the primordial polarity that explodes into creation and contracts in dissolution, the dance of Lila. The entire poem is so expressive, but one line that stands out for me is, "You are still connected to the current of your existence." And this connectedness can never be broken or damaged in anyway for Life itself is deeper than form and it is the very source of the world of form. This one Life is who we are.
ReplyDeleteJoeseph, thank you so much - this one Life is who we are.
ReplyDeleteI am a little overwhelmed by all the comments on this poem, which I feel was written in time to the beat of my heart - like an incantation, as David said.