LANGUAGE IS IMPERFECT: LOVE ETERNAL

“Les langues imparfaites en cela que plusieurs, manque la suprême.”

“Language is imperfect and is why no one language achieves supremacy.”

“Il n’y a que la Beauté; – et elle n’a qu’une expression parfaite, la Poesie. Tout le reste, est mensonge – excepté, pour ceux qui vivent du corps, l’amour, et, cet amour de l’esprit, l’amitié”

“There is only beauty; – and she has her perfect expression, poetry. All the rest, it is a lie – except, for those who live of the body, love, and, love of the spirit, friendship.

Stéphane Mallarmé

We walked together for many a year in joyful isolation,
Which, in our absences, harboured a different truth –
One so palatable to bear: that all our fruits of careful
Speech did nothing but enhance our living moments
Despite the feelings which insist upon being shown.

For in our passion to do what is right, pragmatism’s gift,
We have done unintended harm, in our clumsy ways,
To those who care just as deep but, in life’s constraints,
Humbly move and listen and work towards our aims –
Living each day within our known truths, fully shared.

In our many languages none can acquire her place,
For intrinsic in our understanding is humanities fears,
That we live in the past not in the future or present;
Time being our deepest fear, in our finite place here,
Where our artefacts are those that express our being.

In walking together we have found another way, one
Of laughter and joy and care which challenges reveal:
In our deepest moments of movement lies something,
Seen, but beyond the rational words required of work,
In humanities deepest unspoken partnership, is our love.

David Scanlon – England – (1963 - )

Scanlon. D (2018) The Poetry of Life: Seeing Again. The Foolish Poet Press, Wilmslow, England. LANGUAGE IS IMPERFECT: LOVE ETERNAL. Page Number 14.