1 <br /> <br />Cloven, we are incorporate, our wounds <br />simple but mysterious. We have <br />some wherewithal to bide our time on earth. <br />Endurance is fantastic; ambulances <br />battling at intersections, the city <br />intolerably en fête. My reflexes <br />are words themselves rather than standard <br />flexures of civil power. In all of this <br />Cassiopeia's a blessing <br />as is steady Orion beloved of poets. <br />Quotidian natures ours for the time being <br />I do not know <br />how we should be absolved or what is fate. <br /> <br />2 <br /> <br />Fame is not fastidious about the lips <br />which spread it. So long as there are mouths <br />to reiterate the one name it does not <br />matter whose they are. <br />The fact that to the seeker after fame <br />they are indistinguishable from each other <br />and are all counted as equal shows that this <br />passion has its origin in the experience <br />of crowd manipulation. Names collect <br />their own crowds. They are greedy, live their own <br />separate lives, hardly at all connected <br />with the real natures of the men who bear them. <br /> <br />3 <br /> <br />But hear this: that which is difficult <br />preserves democracy; you pay respect <br />to the intelligence of the citizen. <br />Basics are not condescension. Some <br />tyrants make great patrons. Let us observe <br />this and pass on. Certain directives <br />parody at your own risk. Tread lightly <br />with personal dignity and public image. <br />Safeguard the image of the common man.<br /><br />Geoffrey Hill<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/on-reading-crowds-and-power/
