New snow has replaced what the warm sun of the last two days melted. Winter clings on, though it cannot last forever. In less than two months the trees will have leaves.
The Gatherer
His cool blue eyes (in a baby face)
took in the crowd like rain on a lake.
One look joined each of them (in him)
with new histories, loves & griefs.
He never knew (but guessed) if they,
too, felt the change, or whether, like
rain spread within a lake, they remained
the same collection of atoms
indifferent to the splendid shores
that shaped them into something with
a meaning more than mere moisture,
that held them in community
with all the other beating hearts
his cool blue eyes had gathered in.
posted by Lee @ 18:57
2 comments
2 Comments:
This is a clever idea - and I mean that in the best way. The crowd as individuated rain... then as homogeneous water.
But my brain is troubled trying to sort out the two alternatives - why, if they do not 'feel the change' of his gaze are they lost in the collective of the lake?
I often see the strangers of my life oscillate between being separate people, worthy of their story - my own creation if need be - and part of a crowd.
How much is the sentiment here like Auden's?
The crowds upon the pavement
were fields of harvest wheat.
The lake is his private lake. In fact, his speculation as to whether they could feel it is a little crazy.
After all, meaning given us by strangers is not much meaning to us.
The Auden lines are along the same sentiment, though ten words from Auden are enough humble me! Wow, those are beautiful.
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