Brimful of Karuna
You know how long
but not how much I had to
chip away
at marble, your heart
(long walks
bare-headed
braving the sun
hunger & thirst
the desert, raging -
the fevers, getting better
braving...
ignorance, apathy, your cruelty
..lack)
before I carved out this empty goblet
ready, to be filled
brimful, o'erflowing
with
the reddest, sparkling, clear wine
You know how long
but not how much I had to
chip away
at marble, your heart
(long walks
bare-headed
braving the sun
hunger & thirst
the desert, raging -
the fevers, getting better
braving...
ignorance, apathy, your cruelty
..lack)
before I carved out this empty goblet
ready, to be filled
brimful, o'erflowing
with
the reddest, sparkling, clear wine
of love
Sculptor, bhikshu
mendicant of pure intentions
master
Sculptor, bhikshu
mendicant of pure intentions
master
at the
art of seduction
poet, musician, painter
the greatest & last:
all things I became
just to live, be, the part -
Giver of asha & daya
divine kama & prem
to you; I changed into
the Receptacle
of Bliss
art of seduction
poet, musician, painter
the greatest & last:
all things I became
just to live, be, the part -
Giver of asha & daya
divine kama & prem
to you; I changed into
the Receptacle
of Bliss
karuna = compassion
asha = hope
daya = kindness, mercy
kama = lust
asha = hope
daya = kindness, mercy
kama = lust
prem = love
bhikshu = alms seeker, beggar
bhikshu = alms seeker, beggar
The Angel of Death and the Sculptor from the Milmore Memorial -- Daniel Chester French
In his will Joseph Milmore called for the creation of a monument to commemorate his younger brother Martin. A sculptor, Martin was only 39 when he died. Daniel Chester French received the commission in 1889 and decided to depict the artist at work until interrupted by the angel of death. The Milmore Memorial was completed in 1893 and installed at Forest Hills Cemetery in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts in a setting by Henry Bacon. The design was significantly modified, however, and in 1945, the monument was reset by Andres, Jones, Boscoe, and Whitmore. In 1915, French began planning for a marble version and years later the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York asked him for a copy, which was completed in 1926. According to French, "My message, if I had any to give, was to protest gainst the usual representation of Death as the horrible gruesome presence that it has been represented to be.... It has always seemed to me that this was in direct opposition to the teachings of Christ which represented the next world as a vast improvement over this one."
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