AUTUMNAL ODE

We hardly dare look up unto brighter things

(Shadows of the petrified ticks
of Destiny, clouds) taking up th'slack,

gathering th'clear meadow away
to better times perhaps wrestling off

th'satisfactory What of Summer's

from the metallic Sun (saying There is no God
but I believe in Him because if you are right
while The Whole World is wrong then you

are much worse off than wrong) th'crystal Water
splashing its soft applause upon the lake

unwarranted (going up and down ladders
of infinite delight like an eternal chain of halos

You are a clever creature, O Man, and yet

hopelessly & utterly unwise), dancing Fate's
ladies like parallels between th'stilled slopes

being hurriedly put away
carrying upon their slippery backs

broken, the tides of Shades (away, absorbing
the sighs of the centuries silent with ages half-

Paradox! and The Rest) but rationalizations
too darkened, hurrying Time across all of

the trees that wade reluctantly away
to the empty spot in the deserted garden

of Away--Why so afraid of Th'Silence?...
(th'lips flatter it with calling it names

beautiful Away! fields take Capacity itself
Away! trying to break The Spell) Away!Away!
The Age was some great generalization gone agog
at Th'Fourth Crucifixion (freedom of thought)

and innumerable madmen
all over the world putting on

the gloves of God like Th'Devil! driving
our destiny with both hands

a feathered drifting
hesitantly trying to drift downward like a feather

was all this life & Away, Away! existing
but in its very extinguishment

like a flame involving The Voids,

trying to leave the branches
of The Shadows (of the shadows
of Truth The Strain

mingling in the always) after-glows
of the brain relaxing in its rehearsals
of the too late

just lounging upon the altered mirages
of motions but modulations from mind to mind

of Man among men

& then, again The Chances made too much The Shade's
untaught dull dances--All in All--which, in

bone-awkward sways, tilts, sways and Glances

silently knitting The Mood Away! ( stealing
Th'Kiss of the darkness )

still & stark as striking as
a blinding Light! is Autumn's casual remark (the

platform of World's

decaying Dance that's pretending,
collapsing into some Cosmic Suicide) ...

O away, away, You certain Impending Spurn
as compelling as Th'Leap to Consciousness of God

blending & blending
in the concealment of Adjournment
mending the curtains of un-

ending Selfsame (& Death like an index

its smothering leaves blanketing The World
against the promise of th'immaculate

white Winter's snows),
while The Sun, like some somber ceremony
roaring a ragged greatness of Sigh

sufficient to suggest What is Man!? (but
some small dab (desiccated) of hairy

voidance on porcelain) wordless
with emphasizing The Temporary

dripping dissolution like a final curtain

Th'Marbled Nowhere
presides over the distinguished ex-
tinguishment of Perhaps in its utter detachment

falls apart (life the anthology of
Time, that enemy of its very own climax, forever

folding the globs of its everlastingness
over our mortal bones), busted:

O Away, Away!... Things outside Man
are of no concern whatever (to men) since

concern implies the concern only of Man
& unqualified (gathering Moths sufficient

to suggest        

        A Ball

within Th'Shadows of shadows of shadows

of ...) where subsides The Sun
of auspices & prophecies &

ominous signs like wan fantasies

all downwards wafting waves (of
this World forever isolated from
itself) furthering the floating feathers of

Man's Simultaneous Self

seeking Unity in his ever-falling apart
(riding the mechanisms of his schizophrenia

that mothballs th'tides of all)
mortal patterns spent or untried

by owl-eyed Man, who hardly dares
to look down into things

darker than that & stilled/

denied, for being too-

pied & pretty, unjustified, unqualified,

or true.