We are love’s body, or we are undone

Nan Shepherd was born on this day in this day in 1893 ...

... here's my very favourite verse, as taken from her only collection of published poetry - the pictured 1934 volume (reprinted for the first time in 2014) ...


Real Presence

Clear as the endless ecstasy of stars
That mount for ever on an intense air;
Or running pools, of water cold and rare,
In chiselled gorges deep amid the scaurs,
So still, the bright dawn were their best device,
Yet like a thought that has no end they flow;
Or Venus, when her white unearthly glow
Sharpens like awe on skies as green as ice:

To such a clearness love is come at last,
Not disembodied, transubstantiate,
But substance and its essence now are one;
And love informs, yet is the form create.
No false gods now, the images o’ercast,
We are love’s body, or we are undone.

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Nan Shepherd (1893-1981)

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