Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, SONG FOR THESE DAYS, by PATRICK F. KIRBY


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

SONG FOR THESE DAYS, by                    
First Line: Only from chaos / is creation
Last Line: That shall be created from our chaos!


V. -- Only from Chaos
Is Creation;
Only from the formless void
Light struck a fiat
And the emergent firmament
Divided;
Only out of Chaos
Order
And all living things
And the great whales that inhabit the seas.

R. -- We who were formed from earth's clods
Had purposed to become as gods,
Until the taste of brother's blood
Blinded us to brotherhood,
Until with eager joy we sold
Our rightful heritage for gold,
Until for satiated lust
We were content to be but dust.

V. -- Moves any spirit
Now upon these black, shoreless waters?
Is there any voice to cry unto this darkness
"Let there be light,"
That light be again made,
That day divided from night?
That from this Chaos come
Order, and all fruitful things, --
Bearers of seed that renew the earth?
Is there any among us -- ?
Can any of this bloodless, bewildering generation
Breathe back into this calced, sterile clay
The breath of life?

R. -- Now is the full circle run
And Chaos once again begun;
Now is neither day nor night,
Now is darkness one with light;
Now the ruined crumbling earth
Waits the word to give it birth,
And we who find our worlds destroyed
Ourselves are without form and void.

V. -- Only from Chaos
Is Creation;
Only out of disorder
Order;
Only in the darkness
Light;
And in the deep unsounding silences
The stars, singing.

R. -- Let others raise the mighty song
Of right triumphant over wrong,
And bring to this despairing night
The deep exultant joy of light;
Let others with their breath restore
To earth a living soul once more;
Our treasures have fed moth and rust
And we ourselves are only dust.

V. -- Only out of Chaos
Creation;
Only out of confusion
Order;
Only from our decay
The new shoots of a New Earth;
Only out of our darkness
Light unquenchable,
And a new Heaven
Filled with new stars!

ALL. -- O Brave New World
That shall come after us, --
That shall be created from our chaos!





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