Diamond Poem by Michael Maxwell Steer

In ageless earth the properties of matter
Transformed some dust in molten temperature
To a sparkling diamond, lustreless
Where it lay unseen - a sleeping princess
Until enlightened by the light itself.
So within us lies our real wealth,
The diamond in the skull, invisible
As dust within its earthen crucible

Before the day when molten suffering
Inflames our heart, and in the scorching pain
Are forged new depths of sight and ways of hearing,
Avid as miners we then descend again
To find within, the uncertain dark now clearing
And what was so long obscured laid plain.


On my birthday 22xi04