‘Gazing above Daily Cares’ by Daniel Magdalen

A Villanelle

To breathe the beaming silence of the sky
I long, when dawn’s chill wakes my eyes, and see
The oft-unseen yet boundless peace on high.

When slumber’s velvety dim moments die,
Pale crowds rush back and forth, although unfree
To breathe the beaming silence of the sky;

For fading shapes of smoke they crave and sigh –
The instant’s captives, whose relief can’t be
The oft-unseen yet boundless peace on high.

New straying steps, atop the old, pass by,
Away from hearts’ forgotten goal – the key
To breathe the beaming silence of the sky…

Though I must bear the bustle’s dust, I try
To reach beyond this breath and draw to me
The oft-unseen yet boundless peace on high.

While many vie to live and live to vie
For empty gains, a life reaps joy when free
To breathe the beaming silence of the sky,
The oft-unseen yet boundless peace on high.

Daniel Magdalen is a doctoral student in the Faculty of Letters at the University of Bucharest, in Romania.