Ron Price
02-09-2005, 04:50 AM
:mad:
LETTING GO OF ALL THE WEST
When, nowadays, we walk among the ruins of an ancient city we see still in place some pedestals, epitaphs or architraves on which we can read engraved the names of great families for whom inscriptions possessed a dignity equal to that of a book. -Paul Veyne, Bread and Circuses: Historical Sociology and Political Pluralism, Penguin Books, 1990, p.127. :cool:
No inscription will they find
on architrave or pedestal to
tell of these days, dark days
in a century of light, some
family immortality in stone,
some magnificence or pride
etched deep and hard, as if
forever, honour, its own reward,
inscribing their mark on a brief
span of time.
And now, us, in this hour,
charged with hope and
potentialities, labouring
serenely to construct this shape,
this monument, this crystallizing
seed, God-imbued kernel and
plant it on summits to grow a
tree that is one’s life and more,
so much more. As one gives it up,
with parting sweeter than sorrow,
just as day lets go of all the west
bringing on restful night, awesome blest.
Ron Price 19/11/96
LETTING GO OF ALL THE WEST
When, nowadays, we walk among the ruins of an ancient city we see still in place some pedestals, epitaphs or architraves on which we can read engraved the names of great families for whom inscriptions possessed a dignity equal to that of a book. -Paul Veyne, Bread and Circuses: Historical Sociology and Political Pluralism, Penguin Books, 1990, p.127. :cool:
No inscription will they find
on architrave or pedestal to
tell of these days, dark days
in a century of light, some
family immortality in stone,
some magnificence or pride
etched deep and hard, as if
forever, honour, its own reward,
inscribing their mark on a brief
span of time.
And now, us, in this hour,
charged with hope and
potentialities, labouring
serenely to construct this shape,
this monument, this crystallizing
seed, God-imbued kernel and
plant it on summits to grow a
tree that is one’s life and more,
so much more. As one gives it up,
with parting sweeter than sorrow,
just as day lets go of all the west
bringing on restful night, awesome blest.
Ron Price 19/11/96