Little Immortality Poem

Alone among animals
himself foremost in his mind
herself foremost in her mind
humankind knows it will die
posits immortality.
This poem is all conclusion,
turning lyric on its head.
Therefore, I begin again.
Look, here is the mirror, clear
with morning, its deceptions
my face turns to share: child
in my fingers and old man
one simultaneously.
I have never seen myself.
Beyond us, the blue window
opens an undying sky
(I have read the sky will die
at world's end: that's beyond me),
a blue, indescribable
although heavenly music
put down badly here by me
approximates its splendor.
I feel so good saying this
the next thought is immortal,
the next immortality.

Peter Cooley
New Letters
Volume 72, Number 2

Copyright © 2006. The Curators of the University
of Missouri.
All rights reserved.
Reproduced by Poetry Daily with permission.

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