Friday, June 3, 2011

Beauty comes at us

Here's a new poem from John Lyons. In John's words "it's a meditation based on photos of Patti Smith taken by Robert Mapplethorpe and used in the Legacy Edition of her CD “Horses”.  It was written to celebrate the 40th birthday of Alessandra Siedschlag".



Beauty comes at us

Beauty comes at us
At a tangent
Is slow in its revelation
An unfolding flower of light
In the eye of the beholder
There is no ugliness
Only shades of beauty
A well-appointed face
A rose aglow in the sunlight
Or a moon silhouette
Even a gesture or a word
Whispered within the soul
Beauty is a promise rather
Than an abnegation
The motive for peace
Rather than war
For rejoicing rather
Than the shedding of tears
The permanence of beauty
Is fleeting except in the memory
It is a singular victory
An emulsion of love
Coming from nowhere
And heading nowhere
At a tangent
In the shadow of the pyramids
Geometry schooled to perfection
It is what breaks the silence
To rescue us from the pointlessness
Of death. Caught in its infancy
Beauty will mature into the fine lines
Of experience etched
Upon ancient parchment
A tale to tell that uplifts the heart
And a shrine to our deepest dreams.

John Lyons

3 June 2011