On the isle of Patmos entranced I climbed,
on the peak of song where the winds gripped me
like the autumn leaves in whorls
And a resonant voice bade me to write
a paean about the sweet delirium of life
that weeps with the exultation of living.
There is a hidden motive force in creation.
The beads of life are strung on a vein
filled with the same blood.
The hubbub of Life’s restlessness is pervasive.
Like the beating of drums
the voices of volcanoes resound,
spluttering fiery mud.
Like nymphs the cataracts groan
enveloped in a veil of spray.
On the sharp pointed rocks
the sea is lost in a swoon
seething with sadism.
There is a hidden force that goads Life.
From the moist earth like a dream
vegetation stirs and shoots up.The dark fingers of the conifers
tickle the breeze
that hungers for the phosphor of the thunderbolts.
The lusty grass covers every nook and cranny.
Knotted are the thick roots of the olive tree
like awesome cobras that know no rest!
What do they seek in their sleepy contortions,
wrestling against damp rocks..?
All creatures sing the same song
as the wind vibrates the pipes of an organ
pressed by the pulse of a giant.
There is a covetous attraction in the womb of the earth
which would embrace everything.
The ocean gravitates therein
as well as the peach that falls in its mellowness.
But Life throws up its challenge.
Through the inert clod, through the mud,
from the rancid compost of the leaves
the stem grows upright.
Like the clear notes of the oboe in stillness
rises the cypress erect on the horizon.
What boundless exuberance there is in nature,
in the climbing ivy that covers the walls,
in the solid oak, in the araucaria,
in the fingers like antennae probing the breezes,
in the cactus with the beaming prickles,
in the jasmine like a woman with her hair undone
whispering a dream of whiteness !
What power in the horns of the bull enveloped in steam
emanating from the ringed nostrils…
in the knotted flesh on the horses haunch…
in the terrible forge of the lion’s jaw
with the tongue convoluting like a flame !
What frenzy urges the ants that bustle
like a bagful of beads strewn about..
and the herons that migrate in tens
like oarsmen of the celestial ocean,
and the blue fish that twist in the sea
like silver ducats..!
What freedom does the bean seek
when, underground, it divests itself of its husk?
From what does the snake flee
when it abandons its skin in a cave…?
What urgency crazes the silkworm
to free itself from its chrysalis ?
Like a colourful rocket exploding
in expanding haloes
Life seeks in its stride, renewal and dominion through regeneration.