Sonnet Number 13

Blessèdness—not only in a face
But in the air surrounding everybody,
The charged air that makes me see a body
As blessed just because it has a face.
To feel like that, thoroughly and wholly,
Because someone has just become herself,
Because in seeing I've become myself,
A halved reality completed, wholly.
And then to look at everyone this way,
Like a messenger sending forth a ray
Of gilded light that everywhere announces
That everything is pregnant with itself.
"Rejoice!" I want to say. "You are yourself."
And the mask of meanness turns aside and winces.

Copyright © 2002 Mark Jarman All rights reserved
from Unholy Sonnets
Story Line Press
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission