Ayesha in the Fire
This life beyond life no life can now bear,
fair beyond fair, and yet still more fair;
fire and light beyond human desire
quicken the heart to nothing but fire.
No god are you, of unending grace,
but star-gazing ape in angelic place;
winged with God's fire, you rule with a rod
and are light graced with light, but are not a god.
Defer all the darkness by year or by age,
Death writes your book and limits your page;
live for long centuries, yet shall you die,
and dimness destroy the light in your eye,
and darkness drag down your frame to the dust,
and time cover over your life with black rust
and ravish your spirit and sap you of name
by the fire that quickens your soul with bright flame.
Life in the Valley of Hinnom
Moloch grins in the valley of Hinnom,
fiery smiles of burning death --
Angel of light,
ringed and haloed with screaming flame --
Anointed cherub,
covered over with infant blood --
and we who have tasted lie
put children in the maw,
speaking the pieties of this age,
this world of very present darkness,
rejoicing in our freedoms,
leaping in our joy
as John did leap in the womb.
Robin's Eggs
Two robin's eggs of skylit blue
look out on me,
look out from you,
look out on worlds with bright surprise,
two heavens pooled,
two cloudless skies.
