You Whose Name
You whose name is aggressor and devourer.
Putrid and sultry, in fermentation.
You mash into pulp sages and prophets,
Criminals and heroes, indifferently.
My vocativus is useless.
You do not hear me, though I address you,
Yet I want to speak, for I am against you.
So what if you gulp me, I am not yours.
You overcome me with exhaustion and fever.
You blur my thought, which protests,
You roll over me, dull unconscious power.
The one who will overcome you is swift, armed:
Mind, spirit, maker, renewer.
He jousts with you in depths and on high,
Equestrian, winged, lofty, silver-scaled.
I have served him in the investiture of forms.
It’s not my concern what he will do with me.
A retinue advances in the sunlight by the lakes.
From white villages Easter bells resound.
--Czeslaw Milosz
3 comments:
This takes me back to HS English, and W.C. Bryant's "Thanatopsis." Milosz draws a sharp contrast to Bryant's kind of panentheistic dissolution. This also brings me to a tradition we keep in the Moravian Church of gathering & singing & praying the Easter Morning Liturgy at the most recent grave in the cemetery as the sun rises.
I love this David. It feels like a sentiment with which I'm currently resonating, after watching Food, Inc.
Now the problem is: What to eat, what to eat???
Love the picture of Karl Malden, loved his work for the humanity it represented. When I heard he had passed, I told a friend that I believed his last acting role was on "West Wing" as President Barlett's parish priest (TAKE THIS SABBATH DAY), according to IMDB.com, it was his last. It was the episode that President Barlett (inspite his personal opposition) allowed an federal prisoner to be put to death. The final scene was incredible, the President was crestfallen because after the execution, he realized he should have stayed the killing. After having called him, "Mr President" for the entire scene, he said, "Jeb do you want me to hear your confession." Reminding us all, after after its all said and done, even the most powerful among us, are just human....
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