"Speak to us of Beauty"

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Reading Kahlil Gibran always puts me at peace:

And a poet said, Speak to us of Beauty.
And he answered:
Where shall you seek beauty, and how shall you find her unless she herself be your way and your guide?
And how shall you speak of her except she be the weaver of your speech?

And beauty is not a need but an ecstasy. It is not a mouth thirsting nor an empty hand stretched forth,
But rather a heart inflamed and a soul enchanted.
It is not the image you would see nor the song you would hear,
But rather an image you see through. 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 for ever in bloom and a flock of angels for ever in flight.

People of Orphalese, 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.

Comments

+E said…
My sympathies to the aggrieved and injured, tired and weary. What they say is not too farfetched--"incorruptible beauty of gentle and quiet spirit." Perhaps beauty is not a need, but, invariably, people were made to have grand capacity to enjoy it once they have encountered it.
February 3, 2010 at 10:50 PM
+E said…
Perhaps all of martyrdom has found Beauty, and chose to die with Beauty as the last thing they see.
February 3, 2010 at 10:53 PM
Felicia Sun said…
Why hello Mr. Chen,
Happy for your piece of mind. What grand capacity He has given us indeed, to also see the stance of legions of angels in the bright lights of street lamps =). Beauty is both full-blown breathtaking, and everywhere God has quietly made His imprint..
February 3, 2010 at 11:43 PM
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