It's June and summer's height
the longest bride of light
leaps from all the rivets
of the sky
Yet it's of earth
and nowhere else I have to speak
Only on earth has this light taken on
these swiveled meanings, only on this earth
where we are dying befouled, gritting our teeth
losing our guided stars
has this light
found an alphabet a mouth
Adrienne Rich, “6/21”
“Being no longer human why should I
Pretend humanity or don the frail attire?
Men have I known, and men, but never one
Was grown so free an essence, or become
So simply element as what I am.
The mist goes from the mirror and I see!
Behold! the world of forms is swept beneath—
Turmoil grown visible beneath our peace,
And we, that are grown formless, rise above—
Fluids intangible that have been men,
We seem as statues round whose high-risen base
Some overflowing river is run mad,
In us alone the element of calm!”
Ezra Pound | “Paracelsus in Excelsis”
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