For Haikujaguar

[fpb]

I wrote this sonnet a very long time ago, to describe one of my key spiritual experiences; the first time when, at age eighteen, I had a real understanding of what duty means. It came, oddly enough, out of a comic - the great Phoenix epic in Uncanny X-Men 125-138.

This tale began along with my new life.
Great artists know the truth of life and death;
Great works live with our lives, and breathe our breath;
Great art cuts through all questions like a knife.

Jean was the face of all good things I learnt;
The face of courage to the very grave;
The face of love, fiery, fair, and brave;
And when she died, I was with her and burnt.

I learnt from her what lasts and what has beauty;
That duty is cause enough to live and die,
For love and love alone shows you your duty
And love itself is no sham and no lie;

For love is life, and life is not a blunder,
And all of this the Phoenix speaks like thunder.

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Oh, and the sonnet was not written immediately after the shattering story it praises. It may have been a few years after, I don't remember how many exactly - probably four or five. By then my English was pretty much established, and I had already done some translation work.