Oh you gatherer <br /> of the fine ash of poetry <br /> ash of the too-white flame <br /> of poetry <br /> <br />Consider those who have burned before you <br /> in the so-white fire <br /> <br />Crucible of Keats and Campana <br /> Bruno and Sappho <br /> Rimbaud and Poe and Corso <br /> And Shelley burning on the beach <br /> at Viarreggio <br /> <br />And now in the night <br /> in the general conflagration <br /> the white light <br /> still consuming us <br /> small clowns <br /> with our little tapers <br /> held to the flame<br /><br />Lawrence Ferlinghetti<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/oh-you-gatherer/
