Erstwhile Okie on St. Mark's Place. "That which hath been is now; and that which is to be hath already been; and God requireth that which is past."
Just exposed to this quote by the physicist Paul Dirac and love it: "the aim of poetry is to state simple things in an incomprehensible way." I love obfuscation, hence my obsession with incomprehensible Old Testament stories. I think it gets you closer to truth.
From a book of W.H. Auden's poems. I've never liked his stuff much but am trying to since I moved onto his old block, St. Mark's between 1st and 2nd.
· 1 min read
9 years ago
First discovered this poem in high school in a thick volume of religious verse that belonged to my dad's dad. I memorized the 2nd stanza at the time and often find it playing in my head, but only just thought to look to find the full text.
The Hidden Line (The Destiny of Men)
by Joseph Addison Alexander
There is a time, we know not when,
A point we know not where,
That marks the destiny of men
To glory or despair.
There is a line by us unseen,
That crosses every path;
The hidden boundary between
Godâs patience and his wrath.
To pass that limit is to dieâ
To die as if by stealth;
It does not quench the beaming eye
Or pale the glow of health.
The conscience may be still at ease,
The spirit lithe and gay;
That which pleases still may please,
And care be thrust away
But on that forehead God has set,
Indelibly a mark
Unseen by men, for men as yet
Are blind and in the dark
And yet doomed manâs path below
May bloom as Eden bloomed;
He did not, does not, will not know,
Or feel that he is doomed
He knows, he feels that all is well,
And every fear is calmed;
He lives, he dies, he wakes in hell,
Not only doomed, but damned.
Oh, where is this mysterious bourn
By which our path is crossed;
Beyond which God himself hath sworn,
That he who goes is lost.
How far may we go on in sin?
How long will God forbear?
Where does hope end, and where begin
The confines of despair?
An answer from the skies is sent,
"Ye that from God depart,
While it is called today, repent,
And harden not your heart."
· 1 min read
9 years ago
If I walk east and you walk west
earth won't its path stop tracing.
The world is not a treadmill which
is spun by nervous pacing.
The sun has yet to miss its rise
when from it men were racing
or failed to fall at dusk due to
our stillness in embracing.
We do not move for heavens' sake
nor heavens for the man.
The heavens move because they must
and us because we can.
Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
If my first choices say no
Then my safety is you.
<3
GRAVITY = Milton's PARADISE LOST
Boom.