Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita mi ritrovai per una selva oscura ch la diritta via era smarrita.

Dante

Da stieg ein Baum. O reine bersteigung! O Orpheus singt! O hoher Baum im Ohr! Und alles schwieg.

Doch selbst in der Verschweigung ging neuer Anfang, Wink und Wandlung vor.

Rilke

Cloud-puffball, torn tufts, tossed pillows flaunt forth, then chevy on an airbuilt thoroughfare:

heavenroysterers, in great-gangs they throng; they glitter in marches

Shivelights and shadowtackle in long lashes lace, lance, and pair. Delightfully the bright wind boisterous ropes, wrestles, beats earth bare Of yestertempest's creases;

In pools and rutpeel parches Squandering ooze to squeezed dough, crust, dust; stanches, starches Squadroned masks and manmarks treadmire toil there Footfretted in in it.

Million-fueld, nature's bonfire burns on.

But quench her bonniest, dearest to her, her clearest-selvd spark Man,

how fast his firedint, his mark on mind is gone!

Drowned. O pity and indignation!

Manshape, that shone Sheer off, disseveral, a star, death blots black out; Nor mark is any of him at all so stark

but vastness blurs and time beats level.

Enough! the Resurrection, A heart's-clarion!

Away grief's gasping, joyless days, dejection

Across my foundering deck shone A beacon, an eternal beam.

Flesh fade, and mortal trash fall to the residuary worm;

world's wildfire, leave but ash.

In a flash, at a trumpet crash,

I am at once what Christ is,

since He was what I am,

And this Jack, joke, poor potssherd, patch, matchwood

immortal diamond,

is
Immortal Diamond.

That Nature is a Heraclitean Fire and the Comfort of the Resurrection

Gerard Manley Hopkins, S.J.

Behold!

How great is the love

that the Father has for us:

We are called Gods children,

and that is what we are.

I John 3:1

Then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again; and he looked intently and his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. Mark 8:25

See, banks and brakes

Now leavd how thick! Lacd they are again With fretty chervil, Look! And fresh wind shakes them; Birds buildbut not I build; no, but strain

Mine, O Thou Lord of life, send my roots rain.

Hopkins

I kiss my hand To the stars, lovely-asunder Starlight, wafting Him out of it; and Glow, glory in thunder; Kiss my hand to the dappled-with-damson west: Since, though He is under the worlds splendour and wonder His mystery must be instressed, stressed; For I greet Him the days I meet Him, and bless when I understand.

Hopkins