The Treasure
Mountains, a moment’s earth-waves rising and hollowing; the earth too’s an ephemerid; the stars—
Short-lived as grass the stars quicken in the nebula and dry in their summer, they spiral
Blind up space, scattered black seeds of a future; nothing lives long, the whole sky’s
Recurrences tick the seconds of the hours of the ages of the gulf before birth, and the gulf
After death is like dated: to labor eighty years in a notch of eternity is nothing too tiresome,
Enormous repose after, enormous repose before, the flash of activity.
Surely you never have dreamed the incredible depths were prologue and epilogue merely
To the surface play in the sun, the instant of life, what is called life? I fancy
That silence is the thing, this noise a found word for it; interjection, a jump of the breath at that silence;
Stars burn, grass grows, men breathe: as a man finding treasure says “Ah!” but the treasure’s the essence:
Before the man spoke it was there, and after he has spoken he gathers it, inexhaustible treasure.
A phrase has been haunting me recently why? its source? I do not know and then I read this ,it is awesome in its language , conception and contrasts .It truly stretches the imagination . The phrase that has lingered is "Evolution is the living embrace of eternity "
ReplyDeleteI touched that this morning with the fun of Keith's birthday greetings ,I knew it in the inspiration of shivering poplar trees responding to the caress of a breeze as I walked the dogs by the reservoir. Then I watched a serene swan and the arrowhead of its rippled path on the surface of the water pointing to the journey of pure love when we drink in the beauty of nature .
Thank you Jan for the pleasure I received in reading this GRAND poem
I really love this poem and the language that is used. I was drawn to it by a conversation Stan and I had during last week's camping. We marveled at the stars and how the light we see now shining on us is just an illusion of the past. It takes so long for the light to reach the earth that the very star we are gazing at now may, in reality, actually be dead or transformed into another substance or merged into a nebula. So with this thought in mind, I enter into this poem.
ReplyDeleteThe poet starts off telling me that in the scheme of the vast, ageless universe mountains, stars and even the earth itself are short lived--just as man is. (I love the use of the word ephemerid-- a mayfly--a creature whose lifespan is only a few hours or a few days.)
Then I am riveted by this phrase: "the ages of the gulf before birth, and the gulf After death is like dated: to labor eighty years in a notch of eternity is nothing too tiresome,Enormous repose after, enormous repose before, the flash of activity." I am puzzling where have I heard this before? In O'Donohue's Anam Cara! O'Donohue talks about death (pg 221) "The little band of brightness that we call our life is poised between the darkness of two unknowns. There is the darkness of the unknown at our origin. Then there is the darkness at the end when we disappear gain back into the unknown." His goal is to embrace death as a vehicle to transform us into what we where before we were born. Therefore, to embrace death without fear because death is the freeing of our soul back into the universe. O'Donohue also calls the times that Jeffers labels the "prologue and epilogue" of our existence (the times before and after our physical life) as mystical. "When you live in a body you are separate from other people--we have to work at building bridges outward so others can reach us and we can reach them. O'Donohue feels at death, this physical separation of a particular physical body is broken and we become free and fluent in the universe as a spiritual being. I love this thought that we are freed to again become part of the stars. I once read that the physical composition of our bodies does come from elements not native to the earth. We are in reality made up of "stardust."
Another surprise: both poets actually use the same word TREASURES. O'Donohue says a person who is aware of their spirituality by developing a sense of the depth of their own invisible nature is gifted with qualities and TREASURERS that time can never damage. Jeffers describes the TREASURERS as being not of this world, inexhaustible and being present before and after this life.
I find his a thoughtful and hopeful poem which helps expand my understanding of my existence. I do relish the idea that I am part of the infinite, and that I have been and will be in communion with all beings and creations. And that the hour of my death is the moment when my transfiguration re-occurs.
I love how the poem connects the wondrous workings of the universe to the life here on earth. I felt uplifted by the prospect of "laboring eighty years in a notch of eternity" and seeing my days as "the surface play in the sun".
ReplyDelete