Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, REPLYING TO THE MANY KIND FRIENDS WHO ASK ME IF I, by SHAEMAS O'SHEEL


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

REPLYING TO THE MANY KIND FRIENDS WHO ASK ME IF I, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Music is writ by the deaf
Last Line: To lift and allure you.
Alternate Author Name(s): Shield, Shaemus; O Sheel, Seamus
Subject(s): Poetry & Poets


Music is writ by the deaf
and poems by the blind.
The sage who utters wisdom
has little on the mind.
Before I had to use them
to find my way about,
Mine eyes would let in Beauty
and shut Time out.
When I was able
to keep the world hid,
Beauty would nestle
under each lid.
When I heard nothing,
there echoed in my ears
Certain cadenzas
from the Symphony of Spheres.
And in a mind
sinless of thought,
Fragments of wisdom
casually caught.

Now, what would you?
Mind, ears and eyes
must guard me like sentinels
and serve me like spies.
They must be wide open
to see and to hear
All that is obvious
and all that is near,
And to think shrewd thoughts
with logic and reason,
And know what the time is
and what's the season.

So while I must think
and see and hear
And hold my soul taut
to grapple Fear.
The leering tyrant
of the world I live in,
Swift to crush me
if I give in,
Beauty cannot come
stealing from behind,
Nor fragments of wisdom
catch in the mind.
The best I can do
is now and then to fashion
Some measured thought
with guarded passion.
But till I'm blind again
and deaf, I assure you,
I'll write no poems
to lift and allure you.





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