Beauty comes at us

Here's a new poem from John Lyons. In John's words "it's a meditation based on photos of Patti Smith taken by Robert Mapplethorpe and used in the Legacy Edition of her CD “Horses”.  It was written to celebrate the 40th birthday of Alessandra Siedschlag".

Beauty comes at us

Beauty comes at us

At a tangent

Is slow in its revelation

An unfolding flower of light

In the eye of the beholder

There is no ugliness

Only shades of beauty

A well-appointed face

A rose aglow in the sunlight

Or a moon silhouette

Even a gesture or a word

Whispered within the soul

Beauty is a promise rather

Than an abnegation

The motive for peace

Rather than war

For rejoicing rather

Than the shedding of tears

The permanence of beauty

Is fleeting except in the memory

It is a singular victory

An emulsion of love

Coming from nowhere

And heading nowhere

At a tangent

In the shadow of the pyramids

Geometry schooled to perfection

It is what breaks the silence

To rescue us from the pointlessness

Of death. Caught in its infancy

Beauty will mature into the fine lines

Of experience etched

Upon ancient parchment

A tale to tell that uplifts the heart

And a shrine to our deepest dreams.

John Lyons

3 June 2011