In today’s mail a poem
quotes from Ecclesiastes:
Whatsoever thy hand
findest to do, do it with thy might:
for there is no work,
nor device,
nor knowledge,
nor wisdom,
in the grave, whither thou goest.
A letter with it
discloses, in its words and between them,
a life opening, fearful, fearless,
thousand-eyed, a field
of sparks that move swiftly
in darkness, to and from
a center. He is beginning
to live.
The threat
of world’s end is the old threat.
‘Prepare
for the world to come as thou shouldest
die tomorrow’ says
the Book of Delight,
and:
Prepare for this world as thou
shouldst live forever.