Don’t ape a mummified past—
Uncage Eternity!²
The new-born minute on the bureau lies,
Scratching the glass with infant kick—
Cutting with the diamond cry
Crystal & Expanse of Timelessness.³
The Creaking of the tented sky—
The ticking of Eternity.⁴
We feel through all this fleshy dress:
Bright Shoots of Everlastingness—⁵
The human soul craves for the eternal—
Of which, apart from certain rare mysteries
Of religion—only Love & Art can glimpse.⁶
A soul tossed out to eternity
With Thrills of time upon it!⁷
Exultation is the going of an inland soul to Sea:
Past the houses—past the headlands—into Deep Eternity—⁸
We recede until we are free of the high Injunctions of existence,
And we become exalted Firebrands lighting the way to eternity—⁹
Long eternity shall greet our Bliss—
With an individual Kiss!¹⁰
¹ Anna Jane Vardhill, To a Skeleton
² Shinkichi Takahashi tr. Stryk & Ikemoto, Let’s Live Cheerfully
³ Karl Shapiro, The Minute
⁴ Edna St. Vincent Millay, Renascence
⁵ Henry Vaughan, The Retreat
⁶ Iris Murdoch, The Black Prince
⁷ Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Aurora Leigh
⁸ Emily Dickinson, Exultation Is the Going
⁹ Yukio Mishima tr. Nathan, The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea
¹⁰ John Milton, On Time