Always found dylan thomas' poems to be a fascinating read and what little i could understand of his poems has really left me in awe of the way he crafts his expressions and there's a rhythm to them, a rhyme at times. Sometimes they are quite bewildering and i can't make heads or tails out of them most of the time. but this time is proving to be an exception. today, i read his poem "Poem on His Birthday". and these lines still sends shivers down my soul - in a really good way...

...

Who is the light of old
and air shaped Heaven where souls grow wild
As horses in the foam:
Oh, let me midlife mourn by the shrined
And druid herons' vows
The voyage to ruin I must run,
Dawn ships clouted aground,
Yet, though I cry with tumbledown tongue,
Count my blessings aloud:

Four elements and five
Senses, and man a spirit in love
Tangling through this spun slime
To his nimbus bell cool kingdom come
And the lost, moonshine domes,
And the sea that hides his secret selves
Deep in its black, base bones,
Lulling of spheres in the seashell flesh,
And this last blessing most,

That the closer I move
To death, one man through his sundered hulks,
The louder the sun blooms
And the tusked, ramshackling sea exults;
And every wave of the way
And gale I tackle, the whole world then
With more triumphant faith
Than ever was since the world was said
Spins its morning of praise,

I hear the bouncing hills
Grow larked and greener at berry brown
Fall and the dew larks sing
Taller this thunderclap spring, and how more spanned with angels ride
The mansouled fiery islands! Oh,
Holier then their eyes,
And my shining men no more alone
As I sail out to die.

well i think the message here is that life, like a voyage, ends not without joy and by the grace of the Lord, can be triumphant. what truly matters at the end of the day is the raptuous joy and love that one's soul will finally be filled with as it draws closer to the end and sees the face of the Lord. Isn't that what life should be - a constant consuming and ever burning fire that purifies and renews the spirit and soul without one feeling burnt out at the end. it's impossible to sustain any of such joy for extended periods of time as our body does get worn out by its zealous burning. But our soul cannot have enough of it and at least mine, longs to perpetually live in that state. But my body can't endure. So in this life, we are only able to see the Lord through the eyes of faith as our naked eyes cannot bear His glory and holiness.

Alright.. and i'll just end this with another quote from the same poem

"... Dark is a way and light is a place,
Heaven that never was
Nor will be ever is always true,"

Although thomas plays with the phrase "was, is and will be" that comes from the bible in this poem, i don't think he's being blasphemous. I think in our mind's eye, perception, we always think Heaven will be something that looks like A,B, C and how we arrive at that conclusion is what people in the past had said about it. So we keep getting fragments of information and piece this inaccurate picture of what Heaven is. But even though Heaven may not be what we can even imagine, it will always be true. It will always exist beyond our imagination and is a reality that cannot be denied.

OK and finally lastly, if i can change the lines above to suit my sensibility, i will write
"...Dark is a way and light is the place".

Sorry for the rambling and lack of structure. just freely expressing myself for awhile. :)