The Creaking of the Tented
Sky – the Ticking of Eternity²
Long Eternity shall Greet our
Bliss – with an Individual Kiss³
Exultation is the going of an Inland
Soul to Sea: Past the Houses – Past
The Headlands – into Deep Eternity⁴
We Recede until we are free of the High
Injunctions of Existence, and we become
Exalted Firebrands lighting the way to Eternity⁵
Don’t Ape a Mummified Past – Uncage Eternity⁶
The Human Soul craves for the Eternal – of
Which, apart from certain rare mysteries of
Religion, only Love & Art can Glimpse⁷
The New-Born Minute on the bureau
Lies, Scratching the glass with Infant
Kick – cutting with the Diamond Cry
Crystal & Expanse of Timelessness⁸
Feel through all this Fleshy Dress:
Bright Shoots of Everlastingness⁹
A Soul tossed out to Eternity
With Thrills of time upon it¹⁰
¹ Anna Jane Vardhill, To a Skeleton
² Edna St. Vincent Millay, Renascence
³ John Milton, On Time
⁴ Emily Dickinson, Exultation Is the Going
⁵ Yukio Mishima tr. Nathan, The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea
⁶ Shinkichi Takahashi tr. Stryk & Ikemoto, Let’s Live Cheerfully
⁷ Iris Murdoch, The Black Prince
⁸ Karl Shapiro, The Minute
⁹ Henry Vaughan, The Retreat
¹⁰ Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Aurora Leigh