THE SMILE
Thus, because both are unseen, and both impact
the material world, we say they are similar.
One, keeping the books so quietly on the shelves,
the other, making me smile when you enter the room.
Now we also see delightful colors, but never
the colors all alone; that is, colors without things.
Thus, we have knowledge of beautiful colors,
but not of the deeper things.
So also!, we know only that the books are lying
so quietly on the shelves, and we only know
I smiled when you entered the room.
This poem first appeared in Pennine Platform, No. 63, 2007.
Thus, because both are unseen, and both impact
the material world, we say they are similar.
One, keeping the books so quietly on the shelves,
the other, making me smile when you enter the room.
Now we also see delightful colors, but never
the colors all alone; that is, colors without things.
Thus, we have knowledge of beautiful colors,
but not of the deeper things.
So also!, we know only that the books are lying
so quietly on the shelves, and we only know
I smiled when you entered the room.
This poem first appeared in Pennine Platform, No. 63, 2007.