Epigrams Inspired by the Inscriptions in the Library of Congress - VII (2009)

    31
“Only the actions of the just smell sweet and blossom in the dust.”

The material world is fed or famished by earth’s inconstant rains and soils,
But the soul is sustained, amid dust or flood, with food that never spoils.

Long, long ago, a Greek was silenced for speaking truth to those who would not hear;
To dust his enemies’ names are lost, yet his endures, forever just, forever sweet and dear.


    32
“Man raises but time weighs.”

The works up-raised by the hands of men are weighed by heavy Time,
But works of the weightless mind and soul shall everlasting climb.


    33
“The noblest motive is the public good.”

Commonwealths of cats, democracies of dogs,
Egalitarian eagles and fraternities of frogs;
As lurid as they would look, as appallingly absurd,
Are those societies of men where “public good” is never heard.


    34
“A little learning is a dangerous thing
Drink deep or taste not of the Perian spring.”

One man is wisely foolish, and another is foolishly wise,
The one by folly prospers, the other by wisdom dies.


    35
“Learning is but an adjunct to oneself.”

To live and yet to never once inquire of ourselves,
Is like to garnering all of life’s most lovely, happy books,
But never giving more regard than sidelong, sour looks,
Leaving them dressed in dead and drying dust upon their shelves.

Epigrams Inspired by the Inscriptions in the Library of Congress - VI (2009)

    26
“In nature all is useful, all is beautiful.”

The beauty of the natural world is savage; humans make it sweet,
And useful by their labour, and perfected when two lovers meet.


    27
“The history of the world is the biography of great men.”

To change the world is not for many hearts, such volume is not theirs to exercise;
But for whom it is, and those who feel more deeply, it unfolds before their eyes. 


    28
“The first creature of God was the light of sense, the last was the light of reason.”

By heaven’s decree the first shall be last, and the last shall be raised to first,
Who abides by this is blessed in life, but who doesn’t shall be cursed.


    29
“The light shineth in the darkness and the darkness comprehended it not.”

Not all who ever live shall love the splendours of the light,
For many are seduced by the enticements of the night.


    30
“Art is long and time is fleeting.”

When time has torn down our obelisks, and our glories have worn and waned away,
What shall remain to speak for us but thoughts preserved in colour, song and clay?

Epigrams Inspired by the Inscriptions in the Library of Congress - V (2009)

    21
“No real poet ever wove in numbers all his dreams”

Poets are tiny weavers, weaving parts of God’s eternal tapestry;
And while they weave are dreamers, dreaming forth by parts His mystery.


    22
“Love and life, united twin mysteries, different yet the same.”

Nothing that lives or lived or will, if nobly so, exists without some love;
But love could not exist, I think, without some ceaseless blessing from above,
Which makes us wonder at its secret springs and the mysteries thereof.


    23
“Love may strive but vain is the endeavour all its boundless riches to express.”

Glorious is love’s infinitude, distending ever in the willing soul,
That it might never lack new thoughts, to more and still more fittingly extol.


    24
“Art and love speak and their words must be like sighings of illimitable forests.”

The forest becomes a rustling symphony, whenever the unseen wind goes flowing by;
So humankind, by love’s soft breath, is made to sing, and stir, and moan, and sigh.


    25
“All are but parts of one stupendous whole,
Whose body nature is, and God the soul.”

As Kepler found, among the heavenly spheres, there dwells a deep and moving harmony,
Which resonates unheard within our ears, and stirs perceptions we shall never see.

As the soul shines forth in motions, and foremost in our oft upturning eyes;
All nature hints at the fathomless God, whose name is darkly writ across the skies.