“I am not yet born; O fill me with strength against those who would freeze my humanity. . . . Let them not make me a stone . . . “
– Louis MacNeice –
The Uncut Gem: Life’s Many Facets
Perfect, naked infancy,
To culture dull and raw,
An intolerable, elemental state – a flaw;
So the lapidaries set to work, not a moment’s stall:
Birth itself, that first unkindest cut of all.
As carats are measured for worth and class,
The priceless soul is lost to mass.
One by one, little by little, day by day,
Each facet made,
Each birthday marking maturity’s grade.
Indeed, well-cut gems, everywhere,
Educated, bright,
Flashing hard responsibility as collective plight;
And then parents themselves – the repeating facet –
The heart-shaped cut however tacit.
And throughout all this formation and endurance,
Rare is the memory of that inmost inclusion,
That Peter-Pan notion considered childhood delusion;
That uncut state of more truth and beauty
Than all the refractions of adult duty.
Yes, therein the authentic gem,
There from the start,
Buried beneath cuts,
Living in the heart:
Perfect innocence, faith, and peace,
A life full of grace,
Paradise in the eyes of an ageless baby face;
Coveted by all and yet there forever for all:
The original, beautiful secret kept from cut and fall.
– Mary Jo Magar –