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Sunday, March 09, 2008

That Sweet Dance


Junk Yard, II
Photo by Katy Brown, Davis


THE GARDEN OF EARTHLY DELIGHTS
5. Earth Again
—Czeslaw Milosz

They are incomprehensible, the things of this earth.
The lure of waters. The lure of fruits.
Lure of the two breasts and long hair of a maiden.
In rough, in vermilion, in that color of ponds
Found only in the Green Lakes near Wilno.
And ungraspable multitudes swarm, come together
In the crinkles of tree bark, in the telescope's eye,
For an endless wedding,
For the kindling of the eyes, for a sweet dance
In the elements of the air, sea, earth, and subterranean caves,
So that for a short moment there is no death
And time does not unreel like a skein of yarn
Thrown into an abyss.

__________________

—Medusa