“A Song On the End of the World” by Czesław Miłosz

On By JennieIn Poetry

On the day the world ends
A bee circles a clover,
A fisherman mends a glimmering net.
Happy porpoises jump in the sea,
By the rainspout young sparrows are playing
And the snake is gold-skinned as it should always be.

On the day the world ends
Women walk through the fields under their umbrellas,
A drunkard grows sleepy at the edge of a lawn,
Vegetable peddlers shout in the street
And a yellow-sailed boat comes nearer the island,
The voice of a violin lasts in the air
And leads into a starry night.

And those who expected lightning and thunder
Are disappointed.
And those who expected signs and archangels’ trumps
Do not believe it is happening now.
As long as the sun and the moon are above,
As long as the bumblebee visits a rose,
As long as rosy infants are born
No one believes it is happening now.

Only a white-haired old man, who would be a prophet
Yet is not a prophet, for he’s much too busy,
Repeats while he binds his tomatoes:
No other end of the world will there be,
No other end of the world will there be.

– Czesław Miłosz

 

*Posted in conjunction with Words for the Weekend “It’s the End of the World As We Know It — Vol. 43.” 

Phantom Bridge by Michael of Good2begone

On By JennieIn Art, Quote5 Comments
Phantom Bridge by Michael of Good2begone
Phantom Bridge by Michael of Good2begone

“And so you haunt me. Always with me, you are the invisible diner at our table, the constant presence that trails me as I go about my daily routine…. In the darkness of a closed-lidded world, you are alive and vital, unchanging, mine. You are the ghost of everything that once was lovely… a shadow casts its majesty over everything that remains…”

~Samantha Bruce-Benjamin, The Art of Devotion

 

*Posted in conjunction with Words for the Weekend “It’s the End of the World As We Know It — Vol. 43.” A big thank you to Michael (Good2begone) for allowing us to borrow his photo with Samantha Bruce-Benjamin’s quote from his site. Please give a click over to his blog to enjoy more of his pictures and writing, I promise you’ll enjoy his work! 

“A Prayer in Spring” by Robert Frost

On By JennieIn Poetry5 Comments

Oh, give us pleasure in the flowers today;
And give us not to think so far away
As the uncertain harvest; keep us here
All simply in the springing of the year.

Oh, give us pleasure in the orchard white,
Like nothing else by day, like ghosts by night;
And make us happy in the happy bees,
The swarm dilating round the perfect trees.

And make us happy in the darting bird
That suddenly above the bees is heard,
The meteor that thrusts with needle bill,
And off a blossom in mid-air stands still.

For this is love and nothing else is love,
The which it is reserved for God above
To sanctify to what far ends He will,
But which it only needs that we fulfill.

~Robert Frost

“You can cut all the flowers…

On By JennieIn Quote

“You can cut all the flowers but you cannot keep spring from coming.”

~Pablo Neruda

“People spend too much time finding other people to blame…

On By JennieIn Quote2 Comments

“People spend too much time finding other people to blame, too much energy finding excuses for not being what they are capable of being, and not enough energy putting themselves on the line, growing out of the past, and getting on with their lives.”

~J. Michael Straczynski