When you see this, post a poem

[chomiji]

Poetry meme from naraht, on Dreamwidth. My choice here is, in the end, an inarguably Christian poem. But what it says about what we are is important to me, regardless of the exact form of deity invoked.

As kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame;
As tumbled over rim in roundy wells
Stones ring; like each tucked string tells, each hung bell's
Bow swung finds tongue to fling out broad its name;
Each mortal thing does one thing and the same:
Deals out that being indoors each one dwells;
Selves — goes itself; myself it speaks and spells,
Crying Whát I dó is me: for that I came.

I say móre: the just man justices;
Keeps grace: thát keeps all his goings graces;
Acts in God's eye what in God's eye he is —
Chríst — for Christ plays in ten thousand places,
Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his
To the Father through the features of men's faces.

- by Gerard Manley Hopkins

We are what we do - not as a profession, but in how we live our lives. And our purpose is to be what we are, and do a good job at it: we reflect the Divine in the universe as we go about our business. Just as the job of a dragonfly is to be the best dragonfly it can be - Each mortal thing does one thing and the same - so we are to be the best human beings we can be, in all our everyday activities, as we breathe, as communicate with each other, as we build up and as we tear down.

Comments

[lady-ganesh.livejournal.com]

Mmm, that's lovely-- the poem and your thoughts.