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Meditation
Say to yourself at break of day: today I shall meet
people who are meddling, ungrateful, proud,
treacherous, envious, malicious. All this is because they
do not know good and evil. But I know what the good
is, and what evil is; and I know the offender, for he is
my brother—not by flesh or blood, but by having the
same mind, the same divine spark.
—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
Say to yourself at break of day:
there is a brotherhood of men.
And is it other than you say?
For they are equal, mean and spleenful,
alike not knowing good or evil.
Each to each has othered them.
But I who know the simple good
and gaze on it, as on the sun,
know this: I cannot turn (nor should)
my face from them, for we are one.
They are my Father’s flesh and blood;
they wear my face another way;
they do as I too would have done,
with you, and all, had we been they.
This is the otherhood of all.
Say this, then, at the break of day.
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Papercutting
Decision. From de-ci-si-o—a cutting,
a clipping, as of twigs or rampant weeds,
for every cut of mine is a deciding
what falls away, what stays, and what proceeds.
The trees deciduous, with prompt concision,
shed off their leaves in finely chiseled points.
And these I copy with precise incision,
and carve a subtle nature at her joints.
My craft is scissors—everywhere a schism,
a chasm from what is to what is severed;
no possible reversal, for Decision
undoes no little cut, however clever.
And that is how we craft a thing worth seeing,
a pattern on this empty sheet of being.
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Rachel A. Lott holds a PhD in medieval philosophy from the University of Toronto. In her free time she writes and translates poetry. Her poems and translations have appeared in First Things, Christian Century, Blue Unicorn, and the children’s magazine Cricket. Her first volume of translations is forthcoming in 2023 as The Sorcerers’ Stone: Alchemical Poems by Angelus Silesius.
Very nice, Rachel. I like the image of decisions as leaves shed from a tree, never to be undone.
Thanks for the kind comment, Paul!
Loved them both. To my ear, not a false twitch
anywhere. I especially love the final lines of the
second, ” And that is how we craft a thing worth seeing,
a pattern on this empty sheet of being.”
Thanks, jd – I really appreciate the extra ear!
I spent 10 years teaching in China and I can vividly see the intricacy of the papercuts in my mind. Thanks for a poem on a fresh topic and that rings so true to the art.
That’s amazing! Did you learn any papercutting or folding while you were there? The few times I’ve tried have been disasters, haha. It was easier to write a poem!
Unfortunately, I didn’t learn how!
‘…the otherhood of all.’ Loved this phrase.
Two philosophical pieces. Hard to do, hard to sell, but done and sold superbly.
Thanks for the reads, Rachel.
Many thanks for the generous comments, Paul!
These are insightful poems, Rachel, that provide a fresh outlook.
Thanks, Mary!
Beautiful work. Really liked both of them. Thank you.
Many thanks, Lucia!
Both of these were terrific, Rachel. I’ve rarely seen words arrayed with such concision and precision. You’ve surely been accused before of having Vision.
Thanks, CB – at least I have escaped derision!
Rachel, lovely all. Send more. You are a master of near rhymes. They slide by as sweet and delicious as Italian gelato.
Thanks, James! I love gelato!
The paraphrase of Marcus Aurelius is so artistically done that it expands the thought by adding word-images. Precise yet wonderful.
“Papercutting,” I’m sad to say, reminds of a Word document lost to minimizing. It seems there is no possible reversal, and my lack of technical skill leaves no pattern on the empty sheet of being where my craft had created several pages. Perhaps I can call someone who will restore the work!
“Papercutting” is so pleasing and deft, like the action it describes.
I will be watching for your book of translations in the New Year!