Le poeme du jour

EYE MASK

In this dark I rest
unready for the light which dawns
day after day,
eager to be shared.
Black silk, shelter me.
I need more of the night before I open
eyes and heart
to illumination. I must still
grow in the dark like a root
not ready, not ready at all.

~ by Denise Levertov

Czeslaw Milosz wrote of this poem - "A slow maturing, long awaited, probably identical with prayer, sometimes called by the mystics 'the night of the soul' can, in modern poetry, take the lay form of a black eye mask."

It works on two levels, in my opinion. One, how the soul is still growing and shaping itself. Two, how the individual is far from ready to rise, remove that dark eye mask, and face the glaring liveliness of the day. Sleep and shelter from the everyday world, we (or at least, I) need so much more of these.

Posted by Monoceros at November 20, 2004 1:36 PM