The Treasure

stars photo

Mountains, a moment’s earth-waves rising and hollowing; the earth too’s an ephemerid; the stars—

Short-lived as grass the stars quicken in the nebula and dry in their summer, they spiral

Blind up space, scattered black seeds of a future; nothing lives long, the whole sky’s

Recurrences tick the seconds of the hours of the ages of the gulf before birth, and the gulf

After death is like dated: to labor eighty years in a notch of eternity is nothing too tiresome,

Enormous repose after, enormous repose before, the flash of activity.

Surely you never have dreamed the incredible depths were prologue and epilogue merely

To the surface play in the sun, the instant of life, what is called life? I fancy

That silence is the thing, this noise a found word for it; interjection, a jump of the breath at that silence;

Stars burn, grass grows, men breathe: as a man finding treasure says “Ah!” but the treasure’s the essence:

Before the man spoke it was there, and after he has spoken he gathers it, inexhaustible treasure.

Robinson Jeffers writes for http://www.adirondackwildlife.org/ and presumably lives in the Adirondacks.

Tags:

Support Countercurrents

Countercurrents is answerable only to our readers. Support honest journalism because we have no PLANET B.
Become a Patron at Patreon

Join Our Newsletter

GET COUNTERCURRENTS DAILY NEWSLETTER STRAIGHT TO YOUR INBOX

Join our WhatsApp and Telegram Channels

Get CounterCurrents updates on our WhatsApp and Telegram Channels

Related Posts

Sundays

I sit still, lethargicAnd add new wordsTo the great tapestryOf female sorrows From a distant cityOver the ruinsOf a war he never foughtA boy cries, there is no wayBack to…

Operation Gold Rush

It's all about the gold.Hasn't it always been?The allure, the beauty of goldin whatever form it takes —wealth, power, fame, ironclad security. In Gaza the rush is on.Tanks, bombs, missiles,…

IN the HUMAN WORLD

In the human worldwe have heroesand villainsand cowards. Those who defend lifetaking risks aboveand beyond self interestthose who destroy lifeand those we do not carewho play games ofselfish detachment and…

Faces

The world is full.Filled with hardships.Filled with courage.Filled with suffering. EverywhereThere are human faces.Everywhere the pathosOf conscious mortality.Everywhere the pathosOf human faces. The world is full. Filled with struggles and…

The First Stone

If it were me in Palestineand I found you on a stretcherin a shell-shocked hospital,I would kneel beside youand take your hand in mine,wipe the blood from your faceand pray…

Join Our Newsletter


Annual Subscription

Join Countercurrents Annual Fund Raising Campaign and help us

Latest News