Lawrence Ferlinghetti: "# 46"

And every poem and every picture
                       a sensation in the eye and heart
Something that jolts you awake
                from the rapt sleep of living
        in a flash of pure epiphany
                     where all stands still
                                  in a diamond light
        transfixed
                      revealed
                                  for what it truly is
                                                           in all its mystery
So a bird is an animal
                       flown into a tree
                                            singing inscrutable melodies
As a lover stands transparent
              Screened against the sun
                            Smiling darkly in the blinding light

"# 46" by Lawrence Ferlinghetti, from A Coney Island of the Mind: Poems. © New Directions, 1968.

Image credit: "Radiance," acrylic on canvas, by Simon Cook (originally color).