Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, DEATH FOR THE DARK STRANGER, by THOMAS MCGRATH


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

DEATH FOR THE DARK STRANGER, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: The knave of darkness, limber in the leaves
Last Line: So again the miraculous thunder of discovering wings is heard
Subject(s): Crime & Criminals; Police; Punishment; Reason; Intellect; Rationalism; Brain; Mind; Intellectuals


The knave of darkness, limber in the leaves
Where the blue water blues the green of willows
And the blue geese tamely admire the wild mallows
In that always summer where memory grieves and lives,
Was a childhood friend perhaps, but now has other loves.

Or he posed as an uncle, maybe, wise,
An old head among the winds of that region,
An impartial umpire while the wars were raging --
Or he was the enchanting stranger with Spartan ways
Whose judgments were always final. But whoever the Presence was

He was cop in your country -- and nothing ever less --
(Though always, in your private legend, one you knew)
Saying "keep off the grass" and "no, no,"
Infecting all your hopes with sense of loss
And to all new settings-forth crying "alas, alas."

For he is the heart's head-keeper, the bland
Insane director of a rich asylum
Where sanity is poisoned. He is king on that island,
Society's hangman, super-ego, he was born blind;
His loves are like Hitler's: upperclass and blond.

He is the keeper of what we never had,
And in order to arrive where we have never been
He must be numbered with the enemy slain --
His voice be loud with those we never heed:
His death alone unites the warring heart and head.

And wakes the proud blood of those fierce birds --
Else bewitched by their image in the dead still water
Of that enchanted summer where their wild hearts wither
(As our will is weakened by a crutch of words) --
So again the miraculous thunder of discovering wings is heard.


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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