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This poem was inspired by a very special encounter in my younger age with an older lady and a noble soul.
Treasured encounters
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Precious and valuable
Moments are not always
Seen, felt or appreciated
At the time experienced
Some people we encounter
Open up as hesitantly as
The heavy red velvet drapery
Of an age-old theatre
Revealing the folds of their
Life sparingly with the
Delicacy of a mother bird
Building a nest for her young
Twig by twig for some
Saliva and mud for others
As the patient Barn Swallow
Decorating nature’s scenery
With a lesson of brio and generosity (1)
Those are the brief twinkles
The world offers us as a glimpse
Of its limitlessness and hidden frills
How do we KNOW a moment
Be fully aware of its worth
Feel between our thumb and index
The texture of authenticity and perfection?
Practice and age chisel the tools
Of our wishful transcendence (2)
And when some open hesitantly
The curtains of their inner
Just maybe we will open it
With the thrill of a first
Birthday gift, hide it from
The envious, bring it down
From its niche with veneration
Acknowledge and appraise
The glamour of individuality
Nobility of essence
The validity of confident whispers
The strength needed to remove
The swathes of our souls
And expose the raw artistry
Of treasured encounters.
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(1) bri•o
n.
Vigor; vivacity: “She tells their story with brio and a mixture of sympathy and tart insight” (Michiko Kakutani).
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[Italian, from Spanish brio or Provençal briu, both of Celtic origin; see gwer -1 in Indo-European roots.]
(2) tran•scen•dent
adj.
1. Surpassing others; preeminent or supreme.
2. Lying beyond the ordinary range of perception: “fails to achieve a transcendent significance in suffering and squalor” (National Review).
3. Philosophy
a. Transcending the Aristotelian categories.
b. In Kant’s theory of knowledge, being beyond the limits of experience and hence unknowable.
4. Being above and independent of the material universe. Used of the Deity.
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