The sun brightens the clouds before it breaksthem apart. On the far side of the oceanthere are marble ruins of the brokentemples: the temple each cloud is. Ruinis faith’s consequence—to house the forcethat tears the house apart. The sun isthe yellow shield buckled on to the throatof the sun-throated warbler—it sayswith no words song’s unspeakable fact.Silence is faith’s consequence—a world ofknowing that knowing is a world of not.The book called The Sun held a fact one could lovebut have no faith in. Close the book. Think,thinker, in the dark. Moon—quiet the lark.
Final Lesson in First Philosophy
Dan Beachy-Quick
Feature Date
- April 11, 2023
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Copyright © 2022 by Dan Beachy-Quick.
All rights reserved.
Reproduced by Poetry Daily with permission.
52/1
Geneva, New York
Hobart and William Smith Colleges
Coeditors
David Weiss
Geoffrey Babbitt
Poetry Editor
Kathryn Cowles
Seneca Review, founded in 1970 by James Crenner and Ira Sadoff, is published twice yearly, spring and fall, by Hobart and William Smith Colleges Press.
Distributed internationally, the magazine’s emphasis is poetry, and the editors have a special interest in translations of contemporary poetry from around the world. Publisher of numerous laureates and award-winning poets, including Seamus Heaney, Rita Dove, Jorie Graham, Yusef Komunyakaa, Lisel Mueller, Wislawa Szymborska, Charles Simic, W.S. Merwin, and Eavan Boland, Seneca Review also consistently publishes emerging writers and is always open to new, innovative work.
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