Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE PREDECESSORS, ELSEWHERE, by                    
First Line: All day we pass, confident with strong faces
Last Line: Power to drag light and water from rivers and thunder?


All day we pass, confident with strong faces,
talking, leaning to one another, dispersing --
we traffic unendingly in lighted places
of shock deeper and wakefuller than your cursing.

You have ignored the singleness of blood,
lost sight of one in many, forsaken your land
like women who scatter before the troughing flood
That rises and sags and foams against white sand.

You are beyond the struggle, the dark series
of forces balanced against us, casting us under;
which of you, gauze-cocooned by distance, carries
power to drag light and water from rivers and thunder?





Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


Other Poems of Interest...
Home: PoetryExplorer.net