Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, CUL-DE-SAC, by JOHN ORLEY ALLEN TATE


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

CUL-DE-SAC, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: God took a crayon in his hand
Last Line: And only god knows what they said.
Alternate Author Name(s): Tate, Allen


God took a crayon in his hand
And sketched a swift line of distress.
Who will remember how they loved?
Who will remember happiness?

The ringing canticles of hope,
The azure rhythms of his brain,
Threaded the years that else were blind
And lured her back to him again.

The largeness of mortality
Had met him sometimes in the dusk;
The stench of this day's prophecies
He perfumed with tomorrow's musk.

The apparitions of the wolf
Outside the scrim came stealthily;
He turned his back; what did it matter?
"My mind has thought for only me."

His classic taint of otherness,
Changing his human blood to wine,
Smirked at the doorway of her soul,
Which he had told her was a shrine.

"Now here upon the laughing fire
I lay the gleanings of the years -
A mildewed faith, some mutterings -
And scorched from passion all the tears.

"The white arcana of the just
And precious secrets of her kissing
Are devils dancing on my lips -
All but the craziness is missing;

"So many words are they to me,
A balancing of pretty sounds -
Why does she stay looking at me
Like a scared dog with salted wounds?"

And hope was gone and demons lingered.
Yet was there ever hope in him?
I knew him when his teeth were sharp -
More sanguine was he but as slim.

And so the needle pricked her fingers;
She fidgeted but didn't go;
A faint forgetfulness of reasons
Kept her with him. Time is slow.

The ins she saw but not the outs;
The pots and pans conspired to rust -
It made some difference, I suppose:
Her stare was dry as blistered dust.

Who will remember happiness?
I can recall that they are dead.
I know that heaven cracked one day.
And only God knows what they said.














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