The elephant to couple in peace, the porpoise to be free of the microphone; this page to know a master, a future, a page with the flesh melodious, to bring her up through the page, paper-shrouded, from whatever depth she lies, dulling her gift, bringing her to song and not to life. ̺ ̺ ̺ This death mask to harden before the face escapes, life passes down through the neck -- the sculptor turns hearing it rub against the door. ̺ ̺ ̺ Mind to stay free of madness, of war; war all howling and stiff-necked dead, night of mind punctuated with moans and stars, black smoke moiling, puling mind striped as a zebra, ass in air madly stalking her lion. ̺ ̺ ̺ Fire to eat tar, tar to drip, hare to beat hound grouse to avoid shot trout to shake fly chest to draw breath breath to force song, a song to be heard, remembered and sung. ̺ ̺ ̺ To come to an opening in a field without pausing, to move there in a full circle of light; but night's out there not even behind the glass -- there's nothing to keep her out or in; to walk backward to her, to step off her edge or become her edge, to swell and roll in her darkness, a landlocked sea moving free -- dark and clear within her continent. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A DEATH IN THE DESERT by ROBERT BROWNING FRA LIPPO LIPPI by ROBERT BROWNING MANNERLY MARGERY, MILK AND ALE by JOHN SKELTON SORCERY by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH REMINDER by INDRAN AMIRTHANAYAGAM THE TRIUMPH OF LOVE by WILLIAM ROSE BENET TO S-----D (2) by WILLIAM BLAKE THE STEPS OF THE COMMANDER by ALEXANDER (ALEKSANDR) ALEXANDROVICH BLOK |