“Was not their mistake once more bred of the life of slavery that they had been living?—a life which was always looking upon everything, except mankind, animate and inanimate—‘nature,’ as people used to call it—as one thing, and mankind as another, it was natural to people thinking in this way, that they should try to make ‘nature’ their slave, since they thought ‘nature’ was something outside them” — William Morris


Tuesday, March 10, 2015

Laughter

Know all things to be like this:
A mirage, a cloud castle,
A dream, an apparition,
Without essence, but with qualities that can be seen.

Know all things to be like this:
As the moon in a bright sky
In some clear lake reflected,
Though to that lake the moon has never moved.

Know all things to be like this:
As an echo that derives
From music, sounds, and weeping,
Yet in that echo is no melody.

Know all things to be like this:
As a magician makes illusions
Of horses, oxen, carts and other things,
Nothing is as it appears.


An awesome friend sent me a nice photograph of the author: 


3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Is that Kali? Bringer of life and death, blood and birth

Anonymous said...

I thought it was Buddha, not...is that supposed to be Kali? The skulls are there, but she's more red than black and looks way too drunk and way too not angry. But Hindu deities get reinvented all the time I guess. Not to detract from the poem, which is perfect.

Mark Douglas said...

Kali image; or?