I knew a woman
once—-skin, bones, and racing heart;
she was beautiful
to me. But knowledge
of this given beauty, call
it lust if you must,
would not let me rest
until she said I love you too;
this she would not do.
Beauty is the gift
of beauty alone. I know
this now and rejoice.
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Author: Tom D'Evelyn
Tom D'Evelyn is a private editor and writing tutor in Cranston RI and, thanks to the web, across the US and in the UK. He can be reached at tom.develyn@comcast.net. D'Evelyn has a PhD in Comparative Literature from UC Berkeley. Before retiring he held positions at The Christian Science Monitor, Harvard University Press, Boston University and Brown University. He ran a literary agency for ten years, publishing books by Leonard Nathan and Arthur Quinn, among others. Before moving to Portland OR he was managing editor at Single Island Press, Portsmouth NH. He blogs at http://tdevelyn.com and other sites.
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It’s not about beauty and all that. It’s about the person. She was right.
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Literal readings the downside of this style. Could it be the degree of loss includes the loss of the person? Read for the grammar of the game, the capital letter in Beauty certainly opens this possibility. Consciousness is full of self-regard and without the struggle to know better the universals of human experience the Person is degraded and reduced beyond recognition.
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