Anima

"It is if in a human dignity
Two parallels become one, a perspective, of which
Men are part both in the inch and in the mile."

— To an Old Philosopher in Rome, Wallace Stevens

Observe the waiting face of a traveler, or someone lost in thought in line
at the grocery store, or seated on a bus stop. Notice a daydreamer, gaze
onto the face of a sleeping lover. The face becomes transparent, radiant,
and timeless.

In that transporting moment their face might take on the contours of a
Phoenician sailor on a painted vase or a Maya chieftain’s profile carved in
limestone, or a Pompeian housewife portrayed in mosaic; two parallel lines
of time becoming one; a visage from the past melding into the present.

Sometimes, during an ordinary day on an ordinary street, we are graced with
moments of stillness when we can see the timeless soul, the anima, aglow
within the outer husk— ancient presences, then and now.