~Beauty~

Where shall you seek  beauty,
and how shall you find her
unless she herself
be your way 
and your guide?
And how  shall you speak of her
except she be the weaver
of your speech?

The aggrieved and the injured say,
~ Beauty is kind and gentle.
~Like a young mother
half shy of her own glory
she walks among us~

And the passionate say
~Nay beauty is a thing
of might and dread~
~Like the tempest
she shakes the earth beneath us
and the sky above us~

The tired and the weary say
~Beauty is of  soft whisperings.
She speaks in our spirit~
~Her voice yields to our silences
like a faint light that quivers
in fear of the shadow~

But the restless say
~We have heard her shouting
among the mountains~
~And with her cries
came the sound of hooves
and the beating of wings
and the roaring of lions~

At night the watchmen of the city say
~Beauty shall rise
with the dawn in the East~

And at noontide the toilers and the wayfarers say,
~We have seen her
leaning  over the earth
from the windows of the sunset~

In winter say the snowbound
~She shall come with the spring
leaping upon the hills~

And in the summer heat the reapers say
~We have seen her dancing
with the autumn leaves,
and we saw a drift of snow  in her hair~

All these things  you have said of beauty.
Yet in truth you spoke not of her
but of needs unsatisfied.

And beauty is not a need
but an ecstasy
It is not a mouth thirsting
nor an empty hand stretched forth.

But rather a heart inflamed
and a  Soul enchanted.

It is not the image you would see
nor the song you would hear,
But rather an image you see
though you close your eyes
and a song you hear
though you shut your ears.

It is not the sap within the  furrowed bark
nor a wing  attached to a claw.
But rather a garden  forever in bloom
and a flock of angels forever in flight

Beauty is life when life unveils her holy face
But you are life and you are the veil.
Beauty is eternity gazing at itself in the mirror.
But you are eternity and you are the mirror.

Kahlil Gibran - The Prophet

~We shall be known by the tracks we leave behind ~