A Brief Intermission

Since I have been really, really busy in the file mines and haven't had much energy for posting new articles, I thought that at least I could share some of my favorite poetry with everyone in the meantime. I'm going to get some sleep and have a social life. Happy Reading!

Pantheist, by Robert Service

Lolling on a bank of thyme
Drunk with Spring I made this rhyme. . . .

Though peoples perish in defeat,
And races suffer to survive,
The sunshine never was so sweet,
So vast the joy to be alive;

The laughing leaves, the glowing grass
Proclaim how good it is to be;
The pines are lyric as I pass,
The hills hosannas sing to me.

Pink roses ring yon placid palm,
Soft shines the blossom of the peach;
The sapphire sea is satin calm,
With bell-like tinkle on the beach;

A lizard lazes in the sun,
A bee is bumbling to my hand;
Shy breezes whisper: "You are one
With us because you understand."

Yea, I am one with all I see,
With wind and wave, with pine and palm;
Their very elements in me
Are fused to make me what I am.

Through me their common life-stream flows,
And when I yield this human breath,
In leaf and blossom, bud and rose,
Live on I will . . . There is no Death.

Oh, let me flee from woeful things,
And listen to the linnet's song;
To solitude my spirit clings,
To sunny woodlands I belong.

O foolish men! Yourselves destroy.
But I from pain would win surcease. . . .
O Earth, grant me eternal joy!
O Nature - everlasting peace!

Amen.

This piece was written on a World War One battlefield amidst the chaos of death and destruction. It is both a work of hope and an affirmation of resignation to those forces greater than ourselves, that we, as individuals, have little control over or understanding of. I am always comforted by this poem and reminded that even in the midst of catastrophe, be it personal or communal, that Nature's beauty exists, reemerges, and the course of life continues in spite of man's overwhelming sense of self-importance and pride. We are of this Nature, within this Nature, and will return the parts we have used of Nature back into Nature when the time comes.

This is also a statement against war; a sentiment I strongly endorse. The honeybee knows no allegiances to rulers and feels no nationalistic or religious fervor, thus is not driven to murder his brother in the name of some political or social end.