Poem April 30, 1966 Issue

ETERNAL IMAGE

Jeanne Guerin Bengston

The grandeur of the snowcapped peak
gleams, mirrored in the lake:
each pinnacle and ridge and mass
repeated, for its sake.
There no detail of majesty
but is reflected clean
where smooth and tranquil water waits
to receive the imaged scene.

Even a ripple on this quiet face
would distort the clear domain
and storms obliterate entire,
yet the majesty will remain.

The winds belong to neither lake
nor mountain—strange to both—
nor can the real and beautiful
be canceled by their wrath.
When quiet and undisturbed thought rests
in harmony—as it can–
then Soul, in all its loveliness,
reflects itself in man.

Jeanne Guerin Bengston

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