Stephen Dunn: "Always Something More Beautiful"
It's been a week for all things existential. Our neighbor's mother died exactly seven days ago today. Tony is among our very best friends, so we had come to know Mary, known as Mickey, pretty well over the last couple decades. Some good ideas emerged from the funeral, held last Friday. In Tony's eulogy, he observed how his mother faced every hardship without complaint, including the early death of her husband, and with a determination to embrace what was good in life, especially family and community. I sat there and thought, man, I could stand to do less complaining. The pastor led an excellent service, and prevailed upon us to do three things: to stay in relation with one another, to pray for Mickey's soul, and to do good in the world without measuring the cost, something Mickey excelled at. Well, I figured Mickey didn't much help in terms of the ultimate destiny of her soul; if she wasn't perceived to be in good standing just as she was, then no one would be. So I simply visualized her blessing us with her happiness.
Meanwhile, those of us interested in the arts were saddened by the death of Mary Oliver, but very much inspired by revisiting her poems, which do nothing more and nothing less than implore us to feel joy and gratitude in our own paths, whatever they may be. At the same time that all this was going on I was spending some time at the Los Angeles Review of Books website -- highly recommended -- and encountered for the first time the work of the poet Stephen Dunn. His is sort of a gently oblique and insistently humanistic existentialism. So, why not share one of his works to cap a week of thinking big and little thoughts about life?
Always Something More Beautiful (2015)
in the other, though in the past I’d often
I had come to believe what’s beautiful
as I came up along his side. I was sure now
Meanwhile, those of us interested in the arts were saddened by the death of Mary Oliver, but very much inspired by revisiting her poems, which do nothing more and nothing less than implore us to feel joy and gratitude in our own paths, whatever they may be. At the same time that all this was going on I was spending some time at the Los Angeles Review of Books website -- highly recommended -- and encountered for the first time the work of the poet Stephen Dunn. His is sort of a gently oblique and insistently humanistic existentialism. So, why not share one of his works to cap a week of thinking big and little thoughts about life?
Always Something More Beautiful (2015)
This time I came to the starting place
with my best running shoes, and pure speed
held back for the finish, came with only love
of the clock and the underfooting
and the other runners. Each of us would
be testing excellence and endurancein the other, though in the past I’d often
veer off to follow some feral distraction
down a side path, allowing myself
to pursue something odd or beautiful,
becoming acquainted with a few of the ways
not to blame myself for failing to succeed.I had come to believe what’s beautiful
had more to do with daring
to take yourself seriously, to stay
the course, whatever the course might be.
The person in front seemed ready to fade,
his long, graceful stride shorteningas I came up along his side. I was sure now
I’d at least exceed my best time.
But the man with the famous final kick
already had begun his move. Beautiful, I heard
a spectator say, as if something inevitable
about to come from nowhere was again on its way.
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