The Beauty of Things ~
by Robinson Jeffers*

To feel and speak the astonishing beauty of things ~ earth, stone and water,
Beast, man and woman, sun, moon and stars ~
The blood-shot beauty of human nature, its thoughts, frenzies and passions,
And unhuman nature its towering reality ~
For man's half dream; man, you might say, is nature dreaming, but rock
And water and sky are constant ~ to feel
Greatly, and understand greatly, and express greatly, the natural
Beauty, is the sole business of poetry,
The rest's diversion:  those holy or noble sentiments, the intricate ideas,
The love, lust, longing:  reasons, but not the reason.

*American poet ( Jan. 10, 1887 ~ Jan. 20, 1962)  ~ The Collected Poetry of Robinson Jeffers, Stanford Univ. Press, 1988.