Great poem

Jon forwarded this poem to me, which I thought was just great. I hope you agree.



Reality Demands



By Wislawa Szymborska



Reality demands

that we also mention this:  

Life goes on.  

It continues at Cannae and Borodino,

at Kosovo Polje and Guernica.  



There's a gas station  

on a little square in Jericho,  

and wet paint  

on park benches in Bila Hora.  

Letters fly back and forth  

between Pearl Harbor and Hastings,  

a moving van passes    

beneath the eye of the lion at Cheronea,    

and the blooming orchards near Verdun  

cannot escape  

the approaching atmosphere front.  



There is so much Everything

that Nothing is hidden quite nicely.    

Music pours

from the yachts moored at Actium    

and couples dance on their sunlit decks.    



So much is always going on,

that it must be going on all over.  

Where not a stone still stands  

you see the Ice Cream Man  

besieged by children.  

Where Hiroshima had been    

Hiroshima is again,

producing many products

for everyday use.  



This terrifying world is not devoid of charms,  

of the mornings

that make waking up worthwhile.

The grass is green  

on Maciejowice's fields,    

and it is studded with dew,

as is normal with grass.    



Perhaps all fields are battlefields,    

all grounds are battlegrounds,  

those we remember  

and those that are forgotten:  

the birch, cedar, and fir forests, the white snow,  

the yellow sands, gray gravel, the iridescent swamps,  

the canyons of black defeat,    

where, in times of crisis,  

you can cower under a bush.



What moral flows from this? Probably none.  

Only the blood flows, drying quickly,  

and, as always, a few rivers, a few clouds.



On tragic mountain passes  

the wind rips hats from unwitting heads

and we can't help  

laughing at that.