Contents Index of titles
Index of first lines PDF version of this poem
Concordance Random poem
Now and Then
Considers, musing at the sleeper’s side,
the initiated bride
cycle of seed and growth, strength and decay;
tomorrow’s natural course
following simply out of yesterday
through a pillar of fire.
Tonight; intrusive memory’s sudden force:
chastity and desire,
acts of childhood, parents, affection, age;
necessary and unnecessary death;
recurring terror of the unfenced edge,
meaningless life; and love’s affirming faith.