beauty is truth truth beauty
so said Keats
as his eyes rested on a Grecian urn
his words became engraved on our minds
inspiring generations of men
who devoted their lives to leaving behind a poem or taking science forward by a single step
now
after generations of horror and disgust
of seeing more clearly as we go along
that the world we live in
has nothing at all to do with a Grecian urn
whose ideal purity from this distance seems
but the pale skeleton of alien memory
having added a new term to the equation suggested by scientific method existence equals truth equals beauty
it has been some time now since we find
beauty in garbage in cars in advertising
in monstrous gray apartment buildings
in ruins
in the mechanism of the stock exchange
in cruelty
and hate
in everything whose existence we cannot deny
yes
beauty surrounds us man is surrounded by
a terrible beauty that lies in wait
ready to pounce on him before it man
is an uncertain shaken animal beautiful too
truth beauty . . .? beauty truth . . . ?
we'll have to think it over again