HOW PRETTY IS BEAUTY

When she is smiling and she is pretty,

Everyone says: oh, she’s startling, what a beauty! –

And she is kind; she must have a good heart!

When she is not so pretty and she is smiling,

Everyone says: oh, she is a darling, but…

What a pity that she is not pretty! –

She might have a good heart,

But it’s probably torn apart – needy to be pretty!

So, what is beauty? – A form, not spirit?! –

To be proper, not weird?! –

To please the right eyes?! –

To fit the right size; always to be sweet? –

To live unspoken and neat; to adapt what’s broken…to fit?

So, beauty is a form, not a spirit?! –

Spirit isn’t pretty, it’s weird,

Fitting not the conventional size pot,

Taking not a foggy advice; outspoken, no lies.

It restores in a bit those things that don’t fit,

To give wings to a hopeless misfit. –

To sow love where a soul grows needy,

To breathe wisdom into a form not so pretty;

To quit fire of a cruel rivalry,

To cherish the fruit over the name of a tree.

To give freedom and hope –

Those are, I just thought, true beauties…without being pretty.

True love is not pretty: it takes beating;

It cleans up the mess, being spat on nevertheless.

It died on a cross, that none would be lost.

Now, given the circumstance: that its suffering was intense,

We can call it gracious, no less, but it was not pretty! –

Likewise, two most beautiful things heaven-made:

The birth of a child and the death of a saint…

They are gruesome, a heartache; they are not pretty,

But…oh… what a beauty!!!

03/15/2015