MAGDELENA
  [for William Blake]


The seawind stings my eyes.

My mind eclipsed, magnetoed

Like the gulls, turns seaward.



All that bright hair

With its moony curls

Once lost:

A tidal wave on the cerebellum!

          . . . . . 

The wiry outlines brand the haze.

The smoky forms,

The indecipherable runes,

In deeper focus,

Issue in cartoons.

          . . . . . . 

His ulcer is benign, today.

It’s said his breath’s so foul,

His robe spawns mushrooms,

Blue-stemmed, white as death.

Listless on its palm and fingers

(What huge carbuncular jewels

Hide the cut and bruise

Of cosmic craftsmanship!)

Great Wizard’s frothy head

Stares back at me,

As if he mourned the grand red giants

Shrinking into white dwarfs,

Or all those little mites

Who grimly cope

(Forgive me Brothers!)

Beneath the electron microscope.

       . . . . . . 

I dream of you, Magdelena,

On a starlit porch

Above the sea.

Once more, the frozen squadron

(The Child cut them, murex,

Out of the sky)

I dream of you, Magdelena,

Once more, with pelicans.



Great Wizard,

His ulcer is benign.

He kept, today,

The sun from blowing up,

That old sweet ball of Autumn’s loveliness

All poised and plump upon his wand.



I pointed to the broad, bright sun

Across the waters.

"Look, my dear, the Father

Has his lantern out

To spy upon his progeny.

We must be sanctified til sundown."



We defied him, nakedly,

With terrycloth and gin.

You arose, Magdelena,

In the darker orange light

And found our keepsake:

A severed, armored claw

Stuffed with sand.

          . . . . . 



Keep the lantern high, My Lord.

Let me break a leg

To mend a heart.



"Go, titanium rose.

Tell the cosmos, discreetly,

That our grand mechanick ears

Are spinning in despair.

‘Com hider, love,

Com hider, love,

Com hider, love, to me.’

This may be time

For the ungathering of waters.

Something more than grave

May issue from coronas!"

        . . . . . . 

I wish you silver candlesticks,

My love,

And bread and wine,

Until the Keeper of the Word,

Unmercifully,

Pays no more lip service

To design.