These of living emanate a formidable light, <br />Which is equal to death, and when used <br />Gives increase eternally. <br />What fortifies in separate thought <br />Is not drawn by wind or by man defiled. <br />So whispers the parable of doubleness. <br />As it is necessary not to submit <br />To power which weakens the hidden forms; <br />It is extraordinarily more essential <br />Not to deny welcome to these originating forces <br />When they gather within our heat <br />To give us habitation. <br />The one life must be attempted with the other, <br />That we may embark upon the fiery work <br />For which we were certainly made. <br /> <br /> <br />What has been separated from the mother, <br />Must again be joined; for we were born of spirit, <br />And to spirit all mortal things return, <br />As it is necessary in the method of earth. <br />So sings the parable of singleness. <br />My comforter does not conceal his face; <br />I have seen appearances that were not marshalled <br />By sleep. <br />Perhaps I am to be stationed <br />At the nets which move through this completing sea. <br />Or I have hunting on my sign. <br /> <br /> <br />Yet the ground is visible, <br />The center of our seeing. (The houses rest <br />Like sentinels on this hawking star. <br />Two women are bathing near a trestle; <br />Their bodies dress the world in golden birds; <br />The skin of their throats is a dancing flute. . . <br />How alter or change? How properly <br />Find an exact equation? What is flying <br />Anywhere that is more essential to our quest? <br />Even the lake. . . boat walking on its blue streets; <br />Organ of thunder muttering in the sky. . . A tiger <br />Standing on the edge of a plowed field. . . <br />What is necessary? What is inseparable to know? <br />The children seek silvery-pretty caves. . . <br />What are we to teach?) <br />The distance is not great <br />To worlds of magnificent joy or nowhere.<br /><br />Kenneth Patchen<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-cloth-of-the-tempest/
