SAINT JULIAN PRESS
Kevin McGrath ~ Romance: The Only Life
This poem confronts humanity’s smallness against the cosmos, portraying our lives as brief shadows within a universe that “disdains” us for our own failings. The early lines set the tone: even the “star of dawn” observes our “futility,” implying an indifference as natural as it is humbling. Yet, in nature’s creatures—“lions and young leopards”—the speaker glimpses a grace and “gentle kindness” that inspire human speech and stir our attempts at meaning. These animals embody a quiet perfection that surpasses “our suffering and endurance,” existing in a realm of beauty to which humanity aspires but cannot quite reach.
As the poem turns to mortality, it offers a reflection on how little we leave behind: soon, we “shall step outside / Leave no impression on the earth.” Yet, rather than bleakness, this final acknowledgment brings a soft gratitude for “gifts from the sky” that have unexpectedly “clothed” our fleeting time here. In the end, the poem offers no grand resolution—only the quiet admission that, though “we who held so many gifts” may never fully grasp their worth, we find some small grace in having known them at all. The poem leaves us in an existential pause, an ode to what remains unspoken and fleetingly understood.
As the poem turns to mortality, it offers a reflection on how little we leave behind: soon, we “shall step outside / Leave no impression on the earth.” Yet, rather than bleakness, this final acknowledgment brings a soft gratitude for “gifts from the sky” that have unexpectedly “clothed” our fleeting time here. In the end, the poem offers no grand resolution—only the quiet admission that, though “we who held so many gifts” may never fully grasp their worth, we find some small grace in having known them at all. The poem leaves us in an existential pause, an ode to what remains unspoken and fleetingly understood.
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Publication Date: December 2, 2024
Paperback: $18.00 Publisher: Saint Julian Press, Inc. Language: English ISBN-13: 978-1-955194-40-2 Library of Congress Control Number: 2024948742 Paperback: 90 pages |
Available Through ~ Ingram Content Group ~ Amazon ~ Barnes & Noble ~ IndieBound ~ Fine Book Distributors & Retailers
Saint Julian Press, Inc. * Houston, TX 77008 * Ron Starbuck ~ Publisher-CEO
Email: ronstarbuck@saintjulianpress.com * Web: www.saintjulianpress.com
Saint Julian Press, Inc. * Houston, TX 77008 * Ron Starbuck ~ Publisher-CEO
Email: ronstarbuck@saintjulianpress.com * Web: www.saintjulianpress.com
SAINT JULIAN PRESS, INC. © 2022
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This arrangement does help to sustain the press and allow us to publish more books by more authors.