Beauty

By Kahlil Gibran from The Prophet

Where shall you seek beauty, 
and how shall you find her 
unless she herself 
be your way 
and your guide? 
And how 
shall you speak of her 
except she be the weaver 
of your speech? 
The aggrieved and the injured say, 
Beauty is kind and gentle. 
Like a young mother 
half shy of her own glory 
she walks among us~ 
And the passionate say 
Nay beauty is a thing 
of might and dread 
Like the tempest
she shakes the earth
beneath us
and the sky above us 
The tired and the weary say 
Beauty is of 
soft whisperings. 
She speaks in our spirit 
Her voice yields to our 
silences 
like a faint light 
that quivers 
in fear of the shadow
But the restless say 
We have heard her 
shouting among the mountains
And with her cries 
came the sound of hooves 
and the beating of wings 
and the roaring of lions
At night 
the watchmen of the city say 
Beauty shall rise 
with the dawn in the East
And at noontide 
the toilers and the wayfarers say, 
We have seen her leaning 
over the earth 
from the windows 
of the sunset
In winter 
say the snowbound 
She shall come 
with the spring 
leaping upon the hills
And in the summer heat 
the reapers say 
We have seen her dancing 
with the autumn leaves, 
and we saw a drift of snow 
in her hair
All these things 
you have said 
of beauty. 
Yet in truth 
you spoke 
not of her 
but of needs 
unsatisfied.
And beauty
is not a need 
but an ecstasy 
It is not a mouth 
thirsting nor 
an empty hand 
stretched forth. 
But rather 
a heart inflamed 
and a 
Soul enchanted. 
It is not 
the image
you would see 
nor the song 
you would hear,
But rather an image
you see 
though you close your eyes 
and a song you hear 
It is not the sap
though you shut your ears. 
within the 
furrowed bark 
nor a wing 
attached to a claw.
But rather 
a garden 
forever in bloom 
and a flock of angels 
forever in flight 
Beauty is life 
when life unveils 
her holy face 
But you are life 
and you are the veil. 
Beauty 
is eternity 
gazing at itself 
in the mirror. 
But you are eternity 
and you are 
the mirror. 

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