Hardened mud and bitter crystal Poem by Karel van de Woestijne

Hardened mud and bitter crystal:
in my naked dwelling
rich and poor in naught and all,
I'm the sickest and most lovely.

House that isolates and watches:
heart that, all unmoved,
hears the sea that swells and ebbs
before satiated eyes.

In no mirror, gruesome-noble,
the image of a desire.
All the besoms are too many
to shore up the land.

Sickest and loveliest; - no: not even
the poverty of knowing
that no-one sees you suffering
and loveliness abandoned you
as you sat in your Nothingness
unmoving.