ON BEAUTY

ON BEAUTY by Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931) From "The Prophet" published in 1923 (excerpts)

And a poet said: Speak to us of Beauty.  And he answered:

Where shall you seek beauty, and how shall you speak of her except she be the weaver of your speech?

Beauty is kind and gentle. Like a young mother half-shay of her own glory she walks among us.

And the passionate say: "Beauty is a thing of might and dread. Like the tempest she shakes the earth beneath us and the sky above us."

The tired and weary say: "Beauty is of soft whisperings. She speaks in our spirit. Her voice yields to our silences like a faint light that quivers in fear of the shadow."

The restless say: "We have heard her shouting among the mountains, the beating of wings and the roaring of lions."

Watchmen of the city say: "Beauty shall rise with the dawn from the east."

The wayfarers say: "We have seen her leaning over the earth from the windows of the sunset."

The snow-bound say: "She shall come with the spring leaping upon the hills."

In summer  the reapers say: "We have seen her dancing with the autumn leaves, and we saw a drift of snow in her hair."

Beauty is not a mouth thirsting nor an empty hand stretched forth, But rather a heart enflamed and a soul enchanted.

It is not the image you would see not the song you would hear.

But rather an image you see though you close your eyes and a song  you hear though you shut your ears.

It is not the sap within the furrowed bark, nor a wing attached to a claw,

But rather a garden forever in bloom, and a flock of angels forever in flight.

Beauty is life when life unveils her holy face.

But you are life and you are the veil. Beauty is eternity gazing at itself in a mirror.

But you are eternity and you are the mirror.............

Photographs 2021