Welcome to the July Poem of the Month!
When I was growing up, I was always better at writing and English in school than math, the direct result of which is that you get a Poem of the Month from me, instead of an Algebra Equation of the Month. I was, however, always fascinated with the idea of infinity. That crazy little “8” fallen over on it’s side was the definition of the indefinable, the limitless – something that you could get your mind around, only to realize that you could never really get your mind around it. You could grasp at the receding borders of infinity, only to collapse, defeated, as those borders (or really the lack of borders) remained by definition, out of reach.
It wasn’t until I was older that the quest to comprehend the infinite seemed less important, and the infinite became something to be inspired by and revered, rather than conquered. Whether manifested through poetry, through love, through the limitless starry evening sky, the infinite remains for me an inspiration. I hope you enjoy this month’s Poem of the Month about the inspired reverence for the infinite.
Warmest Regards,
Stewart
Giacomo Leopardi
(1798 – 1837)
The Infinite
This solitary hill has always been dear to me,
And this hedgerow, which closes in the view
So well that one need hardly look upon the west.
But sitting and reflecting, from out of the endless
Expanse of night sky, and the supernatural
Silences and stillness so profound,
My heart, for a moment, no longer fears.
And, like the wind I hear whisper among these leaves,
I hear within that infinite silence a voice:
It overwhelms me with the eternal,
And the seasons passed away, and the present
And living, and with its own sound. Thus within
This immensity my thoughts are drowned…
And it is sweet to be shipwrecked in this sea.
