0051 From Plotinus: Enneads 4 and 6

Often, I awaken to myself,
as from this earthly body lifted up;
and feel external to all other things,
myself the single knower past all thought;

I marvel at the beauty I then see,
a beauty all around, yet seen as one;
then, know myself to live the noblest life,
at one with highest being in that realm.

Only when, from this high state past thought,
I afterward descend, I ask myself
how can so great a thing - that soul I own,
take mortal body? How may these things be?

And this, the life of gods and blessed men:
alone with the All-One; none alien then!

poem by Michael Shepherd
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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