Polarity Inversion
“Spesso è da forte,
Più che il morire, il vivere.”
(Ofttimes the test of courage becomes rather to live than to die.)
~ Vittorio Alfieri
What matters – always surfaces – refuses death
A requiem for life – shadow destroyed by light
And in the grip of swirling hopelessness, a breath–
–is all it takes to come to the surface of right.
It is the mercy of the butterfly of thaw
An approach of warmth from a distance of light years
To disperse the rule of darkness and the raw–
–despair of hidden, gnawing unrepentant fears.
Untouchable umpolung that can’t be expressed
An inversion of the seasons, life to have yet
And if the day weighs heavily, know the repressed–
–spring will explode as if a cannon on fire set.
For the world belongs to the living and the brave
Past… is but dust under feet… to fill in our grave.
On the 268th birthday of Count Vittorio Alfieri,
poet, playwright (16 January 1749 – 8 October 1803).
