|
|
|
|
Classic and Contemporary Poetry
VARIATION VII, by CLARK MILLS First Line: As though nearing the last verge in careful balance Last Line: To take new breath. | |||
As though nearing the last verge, in careful balance, we pause on a knife-edge equilibrium at this dark season -- minus the fixed idea, the illogical need, the caught rage, and the hope held against reason. With love to answer love, and like the tiger, talons to claw the hedgehog enemy, we come together, turn on a single point -- braced upright as by speed of inner gyroscope -- and catch, and burn. And see, as though at watch upon some final hill, what might be towns, before us and behind -- one dark, one light. And see one way what might be blaze of morning on stacked luminous houses, and one way night. Crossing from darkness to this light, the fluctuant will retreats, the strong blood wavers, and the mind remembering death searches for any pathway of returning, then quickens, and allows us to take new breath. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE PREDECESSORS, ELSEWHERE by CLARK MILLS AT THE BRITISH MUSEUM by RICHARD ALDINGTON WAITING IN THE CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL by CLARENCE MAJOR RELIGIO LAICI; OR, A LAYMAN'S FAITH by JOHN DRYDEN AMORETTI: 68 by EDMUND SPENSER |
| |