overthemoon

LA MIA STELLA POLARE

What are the year 

by Marianne Moore

What is our innocence

What is our guilt ?All are

naked, none is safe. And Whence

is courage : the unanswered question,

the resolute doubt

-         dumbly calling, deafly listening  - that

in misfortune, even death

encourage other

and in its defeat, stirs

the soul to be strong?

He sees deep in glad, who

Accedes to mortality

And in his imprisonment rises

Upon himself as

The sea in chasm struggling to be

free and unable to be

In its surredering

Finds his continuing

So he who strongly feels

Behaves. The very bird

grown taller as he sings, steels

his form straight up.

Though he is captive

his mighty singing

says is a lowly thing

how pure a thing is joy

This is mortality

This is eternity