Beauty and Terror

Beauty and Terror

The beauty and the terror of the water 

May be intrinsic to human

Consciousness 

Yet I remember the moment

At an early age

When beauty and terror

Were knit together.

“You hear ‘bout Johnny Ray?”

I didn’t know Johnny Ray

I was six years old

My family new in town

But I soon saw a community gathered

In mourning.

“He got ‘lectracuted,”

My playmate told me,

“Down on the backwater.”

Johnny Ray must have been 18 or 20 years old,

The shock of a young life taken

Had rocked the town.

It wasn’t just the water

That took him,

Not exactly.

He was standing in the water building a pier

And using a power drill.

Maybe Johnny Ray was ignorant of the danger

Or just plagued with a youthful sense of

Immortality.

But the waters held no currency

For ignorance or delusion.

Henceforth, a young life taken would ensure

That beauty could not be viewed

Without terror.

Henceforth the two

Would be inexorably bound.

Recognition of beauty,

Beginning of terror,

Acceptance of the whole.

                               ~ CK

               *    *    *

“For beauty is nothing

but the beginning of terror, which we still are just able to endure,

and we are so awed because it serenely disdains

to annihilate us. Every angel is terrifying.”
                     ~ Rainer Maria Rilke, Duino Elegies

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Photo: A view of one site on Lake Martin (Lake Martin Realty photo)

Lake Martin is the result of the construction of Martin Dam on the Tallapoosa River. The locals once referred to it as "The Backwater" before it became prime real estate.

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