tyger dreaming

I woke to the glare of morning
The blazing jungle has gone
Out of sight amongst the haze

In a wasteland I wander in a daze
And fall without glimpse of my fate
Into a cratered morass; green, fetid.

In the morning after the jungle
Ensnared the eagle in his
Drugged flight of glory;

As if the prey ran for his benefit
Beneath the azure vault
Within the belljar of ecstasy,

Lo loping across the plain
Exposed and glorying in this
Riding the windblown surf

A creamy gold ripple marking passage,
As a faery on the ride with a host
Of infinitesmal slowness of grace.

The wind buffets and struggles
To hold the eagle aloft.
As if gravity could with a magnet

Be reversed. The runner came closer
The curve of the orb diminished
While the sky deepened

The wind shrieking in his ears
Every pore became visible
And his talons extended

Like the thunderbolt he came
Out of the sun
Like a bat in evening trespass

With tears in his eyes.
How can it be immensely loved
And yet so alone and forever thwarted

As diamonds shimmer and tremble
While they float upon the air.
As if they were a webbed vault suspended

In nothingnesss. I awake upon a gleaming beach
All alone, surrounded by the magnificence of life
In every angle its abundance overwhelms.

Teardrops hover with the rainbow amongst
The tingling flesh like a diaspora
Between the miniature suns.


5/8/95