#333 / There Is A Lion Beyond

On the website maintained by Friends of Arana Gulch, I found this picture. I also found the poem reprinted below, which is actually an excerpted part of a more extensive dramatic work. I was alerted to the existence of this poem by a commentary by Michael A. Lewis, and I was very pleased to get the reference. This is one of Robinson Jeffers' best, I'd say. It provides a very fitting "Two Worlds" warning:

The Cretan Woman 

Aphrodite speaks on behalf of the gods: 

We are not extremely sorry for the woes of men.  

We laugh in heaven. 

We that walk on Olympus and the steep sky, 

And under our feet the lightning barks like a dog: 

What we desire, we do. I am the power of Love. 

In future days men will become so powerful   

That they seem to control the heavens and the earth, 

They seem to understand the stars and all science -- 

Let them beware. Something is lurking hidden. 

There is always a knife in the flowers.  

There is always a lion just beyond the firelight. 

• Robinson Jeffers [1954]

Image Credit: 
Jean Brocklebank / http://members.cruzio.com/~arana