As long as we're posting poetry, I ran across this by Auden that resonated with me about the distance we perceive between ourselves versus what may actually exist. Some hermits want to be alone and they aren't seen, other hermits want to be alone but feel the need to share their lives the world.
W.H. Auden
Looking up at the stars, I know quite well
That, for all they care, I can go to hell,
But on earth indifference is the least
We have to dread from man or beast.
How should we like it were stars to burn
With a passion for us we could not return?
If equal affection cannot be,
Let the more loving one be me.
Admirer as I think I am
Of stars that do not give a damn,
I cannot, now I see them, say
I missed one terribly all day.
Were all stars to disappear or die,
I should learn to look at an empty sky
And feel its total dark sublime,
Though this might take me a little time.
I think this is just right: that there's a real diversity of attitudes that a solitary figure (hermit) can have for The Rest of It All. It makes sense that one might be happy alone and have no feelings for the rest, another might feel a great longing to be reunited without hope, another the same longing but with hope, another might be happy to be done with it but full of rage at the World...each of the stars in the sky might have its own individual understanding of why it stays Out There...
ReplyDelete