A Discipline
Turn toward the Holocaust, it approaches
on every side, there is no other place
to turn. Dawning in your veins
is the light of the blast
is the light of the blast
that will print your shadow on stone
in a last antic of despair
to survive you in the dark.
Man has put his history to sleep
in the engine of doom. It flies
over his dreams in the night,
over his dreams in the night,
a blazing cocoon. O gaze into the fire
and be consumed with man's despair,
and be still, and wait. And then see
the world go on with the patient work
of seasons, embroidering birdsong
upon itself as for a wedding, and feel
your heart set out in the morning
like a young traveler, arguing the world
from the kiss of a pretty girl.
It is the time's discipline to think
It is the time's discipline to think
of the death of all living, and yet live.
- from New Collected Poems, p 110.
- from New Collected Poems, p 110.
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