Defining Beauty: A Meditation

1.

So how do we define beauty?
Perhaps we don't,
even though we recognize it.

What I see as beauty, you don't:
a disagreement,
based on education and experience.

Nor is beauty always pleasing.
Images of war
depict horror, grief, and desecration.

You feel the pain
may experience physical revulsion.
Still you may come back,

to acknowledge the beauty in horror.
Experience sticks.

2.

But where does such power lie?
What in a rose, a particular choice of words, or gouts of paint
results in beauty?

Judgement we reserve to ourselves,
take a kind of pleasure
we receive in the act of perceiving,

whether sight or sound:
a concentration of particular power,
in the way a lens so sharply concentrate sunlight,
it ignites a fire.

Thus may various kinds of art inflame desire.

3.

The experience of beauty is personal,
that much we know:
it captures immediate attention:

act and response,
each of which may vary in kind:
sight, touch or sound.

The experience may also be shared.
Again reactions may vary:
how presented and how perceived.

While descriptions differ,
most agree that beauty has effect.
It, of course, may shock,
delight, or give consolation.

And it can be learned.
We speak of "educated taste.”

4.

There is also the issue of time.
Invitations may last but an instant,
may be so swift,

they allow no immediate response;
may be more impressive later,
as they are recalled.

Invitations may be unintended
and still remain
something vaguely remembered

but still important,
like a noise that at night wakes you up.
You sit up and listen,

and ponder potential causation.

5.

For some reason, I think of a mountain,
new experience claimed,
demanding in itself
with a sense of danger.

We all carry too much baggage,
so must put aside
useless weight that’s a form of bias.

No path is straight.

We’re constantly made aware of new beauty:
mountain flowers, peaks
outlined against a clear blue sky.

We look down on the next valley over,
feel the thrill of fear,
understand, for the first the first time, dependence,

how slim the ropes
and the prospect of endless falling;
and learn to know,

how and when it’s best to slow down,
cast aside outdated perceptions,
accept your fear;

pay attention to what actually is happening,
above all declare,
at least, to yourself your intention.

If you dare, call out aloud
your commitment to win,
trusting ropes and wind.

6.

Appreciation of beauty grows
as our lives expand.
What we learn over time is judgment;
move beyond the gross
to perceptive details of refinement:
what we know and feel.

We are radically changed by experience
and ourselves are known
to be deeply in love with beauty:
become beauty’s clown.