One of the last poems of Robinson Jeffers, one of twentieth-century America's most important and controversial poets.
How Beautiful It Is
from the Beginning and the End and other poems, the last works of Robinson Jeffers
Random House 1954
It flows out of mystery into mystery; there is no begin-
ning -
How could there be? And no end - how could there be?
The stars shine in the sky like the spray of a wave
Rushing to meet no shore, and the great music
Blares on forever, but to us very soon
It will be blind. Not we nor our children nor the human
race
Are destined to live forever, the breath will fail,
The eyes will break - perhaps of our own explosive bile
Vented upon each other. Or a stingy peace
Makes parents fools - but far greater witnesses
Will take our places. It is only a little planet
But how beautiful it is.
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