snail

that morning while walking along a wet pavement,
he gently eased a snail to the safety of a grass
with his toe.
to spare anyone passing a dirty shoe
or the pain of even a small murder.
the snail did not know what had happened
and that its life had been spared -
and might even cross the pavement again -
but a giant the snail could not see or comprehend
had given it another chance of life.

"i wondered if perhaps the same had happened
to me some time in my life
when unbeknown to me,
some thing or some one
had gently eased me to safety
with the touch of a toe."

incognita

a note written with a date mark of april 27, several years ago - which i first discovered in my late oxford days. not quite sure who it was he, victor, wrote it for.

"...turn from the wall, and shrug off your coat of many sorrows. there are a thousand smiles waiting to guide you through the coming days.

turn not to the wall, but to the mirror, for there are eyebrow lines and white teeth so perfect that you overlooked them in your search for blemishes.

when the mirror has done with you, turn to the window, for the window can look back with different eyes and find those perfections, simply because you believe in them.

in the wall you will find nothing. in the mirror, you will find yourself. but in the window you will find whatever it is you seek.

someone else is somewhere looking through a window, which could in its turn become yours. i know you will not believe this, but that someone could find you beautiful.

for love sees no plainness or deformity within the window frame, only the clarity and perfection first seen in the mirrored image of the mind..."

and he concluded that love is always beautiful.