From Dave: Today I read a little internet piece about the apocalyptic preacher here in California--warning his flock that this was it. The end of the world was coming today. This reminded me of one of my favorite poems, a life-giving, life-wondering, life-living poem by Czelaw Milosz. Enjoy.
a poem for crazy days
by czeslaw milosz
warsaw 1944
- On the day the world ends
- A bee circles a clover,
- A Fisherman mends a glimmering net.
- Happy porpoises jump in the sea,
- By the rainspout young sparrows are playing
- And the snake is gold-skinned as it should always be.
- On the day the world ends
- Women walk through fields under their umbrellas
- A drunkard grows sleepy at the edge of a lawn,
- Vegetable peddlers shout in the street
- And a yellow-sailed boat comes nearer the island,
- The voice of a violin lasts in the air
- And leads into a starry night.
- And those who expected lightning and thunder
- Are disappointed.
- And those who expected signs and archangels' trumps
- Do not believe it is happening now.
- As long as the sun and the moon are above,
- As long as the bumblebee visits a rose
- As long as rosy infants are born
- No one believes it is happening now.
- Only a white-haired old man, who would be a prophet,
- Yet is not a prophet, for he's much too busy,
- Repeats while he binds his tomatoes:
- No other end of the world there will be,
- No other end of the world there will be.
- Warsaw, 1944