Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, RIDDLES, by PATRICK F. KIRBY



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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

RIDDLES, by                    
First Line: Afterwards, let us make riddles
Last Line: Not now would we let down the mind's gates.
Subject(s): Reason; Intellect; Rationalism; Brain; Mind; Intellectuals


Afterwards, let us make riddles, --
When the mind quickens, and the freed urge
Goes probing into dusty corridors, --
Afterward, we may speak
Of such things, and make riddles:
Not now would we let down the mind's gates!

Rather let us eschew profundities; explain
No ultimates; let us cogitate simplicities
In simple words suiting the dulled brain.
Let us talk now of equinoxes in procession,
And the red-shift in the spectrum, and mull datum
Indicative of uncertainties in light's speed.
Let us concern ourselves with nebular recession
With Relativity, and the structure of the atom.

Only take no heed
Of ultimates; have no speech
With ghosts; and avoid music! Dangerous
Are crickets and Beethoven
And all Poetry! speak not of summer nights
Fragrant with moonlight; nor of winds
Heavy with honeysuckle; nor of lovers
That walk softly among the cypresses,
Having achieved wisdom!
These things are riddles:
It is best to avert the eyes.
Come, let us discuss the parallaxes of stars,
("The eyes see stars, --
Or something behind eyes --")

Or consider the curvature of Space.
("No bound to Omicron, and in Omicron
Neither Alpha nor Omega!")

Lie still, Lazarus!
Not now would we let down the mind's gates.





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