Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, DEATH, by JAMES OPPENHEIM


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

DEATH, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: This starry world, and I in it
Last Line: As it is now, at this moment.
Subject(s): Death; Religion; Dead, The; Theology


THIS starry world, and I in it...
How can I get out of it?

I go to sleep, but when I wake I am still here...
All night my blood-drops circled through my body as the stars circle through the body of the
world...
All night the flame of life burned in my breast and brain as the stars burn in the breast and brain
of the world...

And what is Death?
It is a swing-door. I push through, coming out on the other side...
But the other side is the world, just as this side is the world...
There is no escape...

So I had best do my work now, lest I shall have to do it later...
I had best be myself now, lest later I shall have to battle with the crusts upon myself,
Lest later I shall have to begin again at the beginning, unlearning all my faults...

This was as true a hundred million years ago,
This will be as true a hundred million years from now,
As it is now, at this moment.





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