Blog : IN DURANCE

5179 posts
11/25/2019 9:38 am

IN DURANCE

In Durance, by Ezra Pound -

I am homesick after mine own kind,
Oh I know there are folk about , friendly faces,
But I am homesick after mine own kind.

'These our pictures'! Oh well,
They reach not, touch some edge or ,
But reach not and all life's become
One flame, reaches not beyond
heart's own hearth,
Or hides among the ashes there for thee.
Thee'? Oh, 'Thee' is who cometh first
of mine own soul-kin,
For I am homesick after mine own kind
And ordinary people touch me not.
And I am homesick
After mine own kind know, and feel
And have some breath for beauty and the arts.

Aye, I am wistful for kin of the spirit
And have none about save the shadows
When come they, surging of power, 'DAEMON,'
'Quasi KALOUN.' S.T. says Beauty is most , a
'calling the soul'.
Well then, so they, the swirlers of the mist of soul,
They come mewards, bearing old magic.

But for all , I am homesick after mine own kind
And would meet kindred even as I am,
Flesh-shrouded bearing the secret.
'All they with strange sadness'
Have the earth mockery, and are kind all,
fellows, aye I know the glory
Of th' unbounded ones, but ye, hide
As I hide most the while
And burst forth the windows only whiles or whiles
For love, or hope or beauty or for power,
Then smoulder, with the lids half closed
And are untouched by echoes of the world.

Oh ye, fellows: with the seas between us some be,
Purple and sapphire for the silver shafts
Of sun and spray all shattered at the bows;
And some the hills hold off,
The little hills east of us, though here we
Have damp and plain be our shutting in.

And yet soul sings ‘Up!' and we are one.
Yea thou, and Thou, and THOU, and all kin
whom breast and arms are ever warm,
For I love ye as the wind the trees
holds their blossoms and their leaves cure
And calls the utmost singing from the boughs
without him, save the aspen, were as dumb
Still shade, and bade no whisper speak the birds of how
'Beyond, beyond, beyond, there lies . . .'

sparkleflit 76F

10271 posts
11/25/2019 9:39 am

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Rocketship 80F

18588 posts
11/26/2019 8:13 am

Ahhhh................ I think I understand. Sometimes although we have friends and acquaintances, I don't always feel apart of their lives and life experiences, and yearn for the 'home' of my past~~~

myseek1 80F

1376 posts
11/26/2019 4:01 pm

I read this poem once and then slowly again and feel inside his desire for 'feeling home.' Quoting him: "What thou lov'st well is thy true heritage".
I have not known of Ezra Pound - probably because I am from a different culture and
a different mother tongue. I'll look for more of his literature.

Happiness is when what you think, what you say, what you do are in harmony - M. Gandhi