Poem: Beauty

Beauty

It drove Darwin to distraction,
this peculiar madness
that shifts like sand through time
and culture,

these peacock feather ideals
that launched ships to Troy
and filled the wise Solomon with song

as barbarians threatened his kingdom.

No descriptions, no words, not science or mind
do it justice or save us.
We stand, as dumbfounded as Darwin.
in awe,
and in fear.

====================

Dawin once wrote that "The Peacock's tail. That makes me sick.". He was writing about the power of beauty. It so confounded him that in time, he wrote a book on the subject, naming beauty and sex as a power as strong as evolution (Though the Victorians being as they were, this book was mostly ignored and most of us don't even know it exists.).

I prefer to think of beauty as one of God's wild cards, a hint of heaven, whether that beauty is a sunset, a lovely woman, sublime music, whatever. A taste to remind us of what he can do. And as a gift, I revel in the fleeting beauties that come our way.

Enjoy your beauty today, and unlike poor Darwin, just enjoy it.

Tom