Looking Out, Looking In

 

. . . the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light

of meaning in the darkness of mere being.

            C. G. Jung, “Memories, Dreams, Reflections”                        

 

 

 

 

Two-thirty in the dark and there is no light

But one in a window across the commons,

Someone to whom sad news has come, or

(Because the light seems feminine) she is

Reading some long and difficult passages

Of Proust or Joyce, turning and returning

To pages read years ago for credit and now

In the hard-learned knowing that meaning

Is rarely linear and literal, that if it is come

To at all it is in the circular reasonings and

Reckonings of past and present, the given

And the taken, the silence and the spoken,

So much of what we come to only surmises,

How, in the end, all we really know is context.

Dear Lady of Light, I turn on my own to write

You this poem, to tell you, looking out, looking

In, it is not the words but the light that matters.

 





Poetry by countryfog
Read 607 times
Written on 2015-04-25 at 20:39

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Yes, it's interesting to perceive lights through darkness and contemplate their source/s. The notion of masculine/feminine light is intriguing and the lines on meaning very well expressed.
Applause!
2015-04-28


Lawrence Beck The PoetBay support member heart!
This beautifully written, beautifully realized, one of your best.
2015-04-27


Jamsbo Rockda The PoetBay support member heart!
Very well written. Full of peacefulness and a contemplation on the light that brings education and happiness to us all.
2015-04-27



It seems that everything is either a circle or a spiral--round and round we go; and where we stop, nobody knows.

We readers get a vivid picture here of someone late at night seeing a distant house light and contemplating on both the light and the woman in the light. Interesting reflections.
2015-04-26



This is as beautiful as I thought it would be.
On approach to reading I paused just for an instant because I knew it was going to be filled with such sincere feelings.
It illumines and speaks with pure elegance:)
2015-04-25