Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, TARIM REPENTS, by CALE YOUNG RICE


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

TARIM REPENTS, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: My soul once was pagan
Last Line: That I may not forget.
Subject(s): Bodies; Death; Life; Soul; Dead, The


My soul once was pagan,
By body once flesh.
I was my own master,
Free from any mesh.
But now I go to the desert,
And God burns in the sand;
And if I flee to the mountain,
Its peak is His right hand.

The tavern vats ran ruddy;
Their ecstasy was mine;
And dancing-girls flung round me
Rhythm's beauteous vine.
But now the khan I rest in
Has ashes on the floor,
And the voice of God fills it,
That and nothing more.

I have become a question,
I have become a doubt,
Through which mystic fevers
Wander in and out.
Life now to me is only
A swaying minaret,
Which Death mounts thrice daily,
That I may not forget.





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