Not All Beauty Succumbs to Time

Thomas Troeger

Not all beauty succumbs to time.

Oh, yes –

I know

the blooms of spring,

summer’s effulgence,

the flames of autumn –

all flare, fade and die.

But there is a beauty that

deepens, spreads and persists

in time

and past time:

I have glimpsed it

and it has detained my glance,

till I can hardly look

for the shining of it:

the beauty I saw in the bud

when you were young,

now in full bloom

but instead of fading

deepening,

deepening toward the mother

who brings forth all things.

Here, take these autumn flowers,

place them in the sun

before the frost comes tonight,

and while the delight of momentary color

plays in your eyes,

I will glimpse

what the descending cold

can never touch.