3 posts tagged “poetry”
The Diamond Takes Shape
Some parrots
-Hafiz, Sufi Master
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Why blame the people for following the parrot? They are blind, how could they know? The only way they'd learn is if they could see...and you can't force someone to see, only shine the light in their direction.
And the parrots? Are they to blame? How could they be? They are just parrots, just trying to earn the treat they get whenever they impress people. They are just as blind as the people who follow them, or even more so. Not just blind, but bound.
Do you see the blind people? Do you see the parrots? Chances are, there are more than you think.
The killings continue, each second
pain and misfortune extend themselves
in the genetic chain, injustice is done knowingly,and the air
bears the dust of decayed hopes,
yet breathing those fumes,
walking the thronged
pavements among crippled lives, jackhammers
raging, a parking lot painfully agleam
in the May sun, I have seen
not behind but within, within the
dull grief, blown grit, hideous
concrete facades, another grief, a gleam
as of dew, an abode of mercy,
have heard not behind but within noise a humming that drifted into a quiet smile.
Nothing was changed, all was revealed otherwise;
not that horror was not, not that the killings did
not continue,not that I thought there was to be no more despair,
but that as if transparent all disclosed
an otherness that was blessed, that was bliss.
I saw Paradise in the dust of the street.
-Denise Levertov
I recently posted this in a reply on Amanda's post on career choice.
I really love this poem, so I'm posting it here for my future reference, and so that more people can see it.
Annunciation by Denise Levertov
What do you think?
