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The Impermanence of Forms The random nature of this vehicle we call earth, the capricious flimsiness of this egg we call a body, combined with the whimsical nature of plagues and miracle cures at the last moment . . . all this leads me to look aghast at my life; for the very forces that will someday create my death are the same tricksters who bring beauty to my pen, who bring imagination to my mind. Some days I see it is the very nature of us for fear to bring balm and balm lead, at some point, back to fear, and really those of us who have a passion for surprise are the most happy of all. One must wonder, then, why poets are generally a morose tribe, even when the greatest surprises of all come between the lines, between the words, come unbidden but passionately welcomed, and for a moment we are happy, happy lunatics, for a moment. © Ward Kelley |
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Artist's note: Will and Ariel Durant (1885-1981 and 1898-1981) wrote in "The History of Civilization," about early Hinduism: "Never has another people dared to face the impermanence of forms, and the impartiality of nature, so frankly, or to recognize so clearly that evil balances good, that destruction goes step by step with creation, and that all birth is a capital crime, punishable with death."Ward Kelley Bonfire contributor
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