Then what is the answer?--Not to be deluded by
dreams.
To know that great civilizations have broken down into violence,
and their tyrants come,
and many times before.
When open violence appears, to avoid it with honor or choose
the least ugly faction;
these evils are essential.
To keep one's own integrity, to be merciful and uncorrupted
and not wish for evil;
and not be duped
By dreams of universal justice or happiness. These dreams will
not be fulfilled.
To know this, and know that however ugly the parts appear
the whole remains beautiful.
A severed hand
Is an ugly thing, and man dissevered from the earth and stars
and his history . .
. for contemplation or in fact . . .
Often appears atrociously ugly. Integrity is wholeness,
the greatest beauty
is
Organic wholeness, the wholeness of life and things, the divine
beauty
of the universe. Love
that, not man
Apart from that, or else you will share man's pitiful conclusions,
or drown in despair
when his days darken. |
[Photograph:
Edward Weston: Eroded rock, Point Lobos]
|
