Selected Poems from Mervyn Peake

It was last year when a colleague shared with me the poems of Mervyn Peake. I'm no poet and understands little of the richness of this marvelous letters. But I had the opportunity to be fascinated by two poems written by this great man. The poems have not only touched my soul but has mimic my spirit.


TO LIVE IS MIRACLE ENOUGH

To live at all is miracle enough.
The doom of nations is another thing.
Here in my hammering blood-pulse is my proof.

Let every painter paint and poet sing
And all the sons of music ply their trade;
Machines are weaker than a beetle’s wing.

Swung out of sunlight into cosmic shade,
Come what come may the imagination’s heart
Is constellation high and can’t be weighed.

Nor greed nor fear can tear our faith apart
When every heart-beat hammers out the proof
That life itself is miracle enough.


OUT OF THE CHAOS OF MY DOUBT

Out of the chaos of my doubt
And the chaos of my art
I turn to you inevitably
As the needle to the pole
Turns . . . as the cold brain to the soul
Turns in its uncertainty;



So I turn and long for you;
So I long for you, and turn
To the love that through my chaos
Burns a truth,
And lights my path.