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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
DIVINE LAW: A BLUE BEACH SERMON, by CLARENCE MAJOR Poet Analysis Poet's Biography
First Line: Women from algiers sit
First Line: Women from algiers sit
Women from Algiers sit
like white marble in their own darkness,
reaching slowly out for the weakest link
in an unchanging realm.
The holy government back home
cannot explain its bacchic shadow,
its nudes its maypoles. What do they hope
to touch, except another snake crawling
up a strange tree without branches?
Women of Algiers stand
in intersecting triangles
trusting the light of creation
to follow -- shining through their dresses
toward the world of Emanation.
These women out of Algiers
are not really here in Arles expecting
horsemen to come for them.
The upper world
may open its gates. But will the light
shine down? In a landscape at sunset,
they wait for the call to prayer.
Used with the permission of Copper Canyon Press, P.O. Box 271, Port Townsend, WA
98368-0271, www.cc.press.org
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