We
tell beginnings: for the flesh and the answer,
or the look, the lake in the eye that knows,
for the despair that flows down in widest rivers,
cloud of home; and also the green tree of grace,
all in the leaf, in the love that gives us ourselves.
The word of nourishment passes through the women,
soldiers and orchards rooted in constellations,
white towers, eyes of children:
saying in time of war What shall we feed?
I cannot say the end.
Nourish beginnings, let us nourish beginnings.
Not all things are blest, but the
seeds of all things are blest.
The blessing is in the seed.
This moment, this seed, this wave of the sea, this look, this instant of love.
Years over wars and an imagining of peace. Or the expiation journey
toward peace which is many wishes flaming together,
fierce pure life, the many-living home.
Love that gives us ourselves, in the world known to all
new techniques for the healing of the wound,
and the unknown world. One life, or the faring stars.
or the look, the lake in the eye that knows,
for the despair that flows down in widest rivers,
cloud of home; and also the green tree of grace,
all in the leaf, in the love that gives us ourselves.
The word of nourishment passes through the women,
soldiers and orchards rooted in constellations,
white towers, eyes of children:
saying in time of war What shall we feed?
I cannot say the end.
Nourish beginnings, let us nourish beginnings.
Not all things are blest, but the
seeds of all things are blest.
The blessing is in the seed.
This moment, this seed, this wave of the sea, this look, this instant of love.
Years over wars and an imagining of peace. Or the expiation journey
toward peace which is many wishes flaming together,
fierce pure life, the many-living home.
Love that gives us ourselves, in the world known to all
new techniques for the healing of the wound,
and the unknown world. One life, or the faring stars.
Some thoughts…
On the Poet:
Muriel Rukeyser’s (1913-1980) poetry was driven by her passion for a higher way of living. Her works reflected her concern about the inequalities in
society – gender, racial, and class. Having lived through two world wars, the
Korean war and the Vietnam war, she was an insistent pacifist.
On this Poem: This
poem is from the anthology, Elegies,
published in 1949. The themes are healing and peace. They were written
over a seven year period – “from the end of the Spanish Civil War, through
World War II, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, to the start of the Cold War.”
…Years over wars
and an imagining of peace. Or the expiation journey
toward peace which
is many wishes flaming together…”
On a Personal Note: Elegy
in Joy… Elegies, by definition, are not joyful – they are poems that mourn the
dead. The joy in this poem comes from the repudiation of a way of life that is
built on violence, and instead, embracing ‘the love that gives us ourselves’.
The
joy comes from discarding the false promises of militancy, and the resolve to:-
Nourish beginnings, let us nourish beginnings.
Not all things are blest, but the
seeds of all things are blest.
The blessing is in the seed
Not all things are blest, but the
seeds of all things are blest.
The blessing is in the seed
When
the ‘seeds of all things are blest’, the choice then lies with us. We decide what to do with this instant of love.
Wishing
all my Readers a New Year of new beginnings and many blessings. Love, Peace and
Joy to you and yours.
No comments:
Post a Comment