Poem: All in the Eyes

July 2011

All In The Eyes

The ancients, when they first surmised
how we saw the world, imagined light
emanated from the eyes,
and illuminated the world.
We know different, or we think we do
but it is still the case
that certain people, when they enter a room
seem to light it up. How much we lose
the more we know, or think we know
about how the world works.
Why do certain portraits
have eyes that follow us around a room?
And which of us might yet confess
it was the eyes that had it, made us fall in love
with whomsoever we express love with.

Perhaps the reason why
it is so hard to draw, or paint, the eyes
is just such strangeness in the world,
which long persists, yet still exists
to keep us fresh from knowing all
and losing that which still enthralls
in spite of where we think we are.