Things

Source: Favim

What happened is, we grew lonely

living among the things,

so we gave the clock a face,

the chair a back,

the table four stout legs

which will never suffer fatigue.

We fitted our shoes with tongues

as smooth as our own

and hung tongues inside bells

so we could listen

to their emotional language,

and because we loved graceful profiles

the pitcher received a lip,

the bottle a long, slender neck.

Even what was beyond us

was recast in our image;

we gave the country a heart,

the storm an eye,

the cave a mouth

so we could pass into safety.

~ Lisel Mueller

Things

Source: Favim

What happened is, we grew lonely

living among the things,

so we gave the clock a face,

the chair a back,

the table four stout legs

which will never suffer fatigue.

We fitted our shoes with tongues

as smooth as our own

and hung tongues inside bells

so we could listen

to their emotional language,

and because we loved graceful profiles

the pitcher received a lip,

the bottle a long, slender neck.

Even what was beyond us

was recast in our image;

we gave the country a heart,

the storm an eye,

the cave a mouth

so we could pass into safety.

~ Lisel Mueller

Night Mirror

Source: Unknown/Favim.com

Li-Young, don't feel lonely
when you look up
into great night and find
yourself the far face peering
hugely out from between
a star and a star.  All that space
the nighthawk plunges through,
homing, all that distance beyond embrace,
what is it but your own infinity.

And don't be afraid
when, eyes closed, you look inside you
and find night is both
the silence tolling after stars
and the final word
that founds all beginning, find night,

abyss and shuttle,
a finished cloth
frayed by the years, then gathered
in the songs and games
mothers teach their children.

Look again
and find yourself changed
and changing, now the bewildered honey
fallen into your own hands,
now the immaculate fruit born of hunger.
Now the unequaled perfume of your dying.
And time?  Time is the salty wake
of your stunned entrance upon
no name.

~ Li-Young Lee

Night Mirror

Source: Unknown/Favim.com

Li-Young, don't feel lonely
when you look up
into great night and find
yourself the far face peering
hugely out from between
a star and a star.  All that space
the nighthawk plunges through,
homing, all that distance beyond embrace,
what is it but your own infinity.

And don't be afraid
when, eyes closed, you look inside you
and find night is both
the silence tolling after stars
and the final word
that founds all beginning, find night,

abyss and shuttle,
a finished cloth
frayed by the years, then gathered
in the songs and games
mothers teach their children.

Look again
and find yourself changed
and changing, now the bewildered honey
fallen into your own hands,
now the immaculate fruit born of hunger.
Now the unequaled perfume of your dying.
And time?  Time is the salty wake
of your stunned entrance upon
no name.

~ Li-Young Lee

Origin

Source: Mrs. B’s Science Scoop

The first cell felt no call to divide.
Fed on abundant salts and sun,
still thin, it simply spread,
rocking on water, clinging to stone,
a film of obliging strength.
Its endoplasmic reticulum
was a thing of incomparable curvaceous length;
its nucleus, Golgi apparatus, RNA
magnificent. With no incidence
of loneliness, inner conflict, or deceit,
no predator nor prey,
it had little to do but thrive,
draw back from any sharp heat
or bitterness, and change its pastel
colors in a kind of song.
We are descendants of the second cell.

~ Sarah Lindsay

Origin

Source: Mrs. B’s Science Scoop

The first cell felt no call to divide.
Fed on abundant salts and sun,
still thin, it simply spread,
rocking on water, clinging to stone,
a film of obliging strength.
Its endoplasmic reticulum
was a thing of incomparable curvaceous length;
its nucleus, Golgi apparatus, RNA
magnificent. With no incidence
of loneliness, inner conflict, or deceit,
no predator nor prey,
it had little to do but thrive,
draw back from any sharp heat
or bitterness, and change its pastel
colors in a kind of song.
We are descendants of the second cell.

~ Sarah Lindsay

The Pure Loneliness

Photo credit: ozden from morguefile.com

Late at night, when you’re so lonely,

your shoulders curl toward the center of your body,

you call no one and you don’t call out.

This is dignity. This is the pure loneliness

that made Christ think he was God.

This is why lunatics smile at their thoughts.

Even the best moment, as you slip

half-a-foot deep into someone you like,

sinks through the loneliness in it

to the loneliness that’s not.

If you believe Christ hanging on the cross,

his arms spread as if to embrace

the Father he calls who is somewhere else,

you still might hear your own voice

at your next great embrace, thinking

loneliness in another can’t be touched,

like Christ’s voice at death answering Himself.

~ Michael Ryan

___________________________________________

Language... has created the word "loneliness" to express the pain of being alone. And it has created the word "solitude" to express the glory of being alone.
~ Paul Tillich

The Pure Loneliness

Photo credit: ozden from morguefile.com

Late at night, when you’re so lonely,

your shoulders curl toward the center of your body,

you call no one and you don’t call out.

This is dignity. This is the pure loneliness

that made Christ think he was God.

This is why lunatics smile at their thoughts.

Even the best moment, as you slip

half-a-foot deep into someone you like,

sinks through the loneliness in it

to the loneliness that’s not.

If you believe Christ hanging on the cross,

his arms spread as if to embrace

the Father he calls who is somewhere else,

you still might hear your own voice

at your next great embrace, thinking

loneliness in another can’t be touched,

like Christ’s voice at death answering Himself.

~ Michael Ryan

___________________________________________

Language... has created the word "loneliness" to express the pain of being alone. And it has created the word "solitude" to express the glory of being alone.
~ Paul Tillich