09.08.2014, 14:14
ARE WE BUT SMOKE?
ARE we no more than little rings of smoke
Blown from the lips into the ambient air,
That slowly fade, or by a sudden stroke
Are shattered out of form ? Do we compare
With things so frail their only life is that
Which a breath gives them ? In the final sum
Are we but dregs that foul the wineless vat,
Sour leaves and litter ? or such frothy scum
As the spent waves deliver to the beach ?
Do such deep conscious beings suffer death
Irrevocably at the last ? Will each
Pass like a smoke when he resigns his breath,
Or once again through unconjectured fields
Follow a dream whose capture nothing yields ?
ARE we no more than little rings of smoke
Blown from the lips into the ambient air,
That slowly fade, or by a sudden stroke
Are shattered out of form ? Do we compare
With things so frail their only life is that
Which a breath gives them ? In the final sum
Are we but dregs that foul the wineless vat,
Sour leaves and litter ? or such frothy scum
As the spent waves deliver to the beach ?
Do such deep conscious beings suffer death
Irrevocably at the last ? Will each
Pass like a smoke when he resigns his breath,
Or once again through unconjectured fields
Follow a dream whose capture nothing yields ?