Improv...
I wrote this in about 20 minutes...It was inspired by Nicole. I walked into my room and said to her (with an unsettled tone) "something is a-foot my dear, something is a-foot my dear." I repeated this, never the same way twice. She then begged me to stop the madness and so I did. I think this little work is best when read with that voice...it is the voice with which I read T.S. Eliot. Enjoy...or don't.
---
Something is a-foot my dear, something is a-foot my dear...
the gamboling shades dote upon the shrub, while Luna
makes her way no further than above heaven's leaves,
O, Something is a-foot my dear, something is a-foot my dear...
see them romp and find a solemn tune, while heroes
fall and ladies over worn take to swoon in the muddy mire,
see them behave in a way most dire and daring to dare my dear.
drinking deep of the darkest fire.
Something is a-foot my dear, yes, something is a-foot my dear...
see the sights transpire till all confound the truest Fire
and make their homes within the ground and leave to lies
the midnight hour haunts and surprise suffuses like dread
in the sweetest sounding abuses, and muffle cries in mire,
drinking deep of the darkest fire.
Something is a-foot my dear, something is a-foot my dear!
They wake and wring desire till all turn to the darkest fire--
see how low the shades aspire when hope is/has but to suspire
in delusion's mirror and the fairest face they see is near and there--
when they drink deep of the darkest fire.
A last thought 'fore parting, my last Thought's to do:
They shut themselves in darkness,
in darkness, not the light.
He shuts them up in darkness,
in darkness in the light.
---
(If you would like me to read this too you sometime with the strange, disturbing voice it would be my pleasure.)
---
Something is a-foot my dear, something is a-foot my dear...
the gamboling shades dote upon the shrub, while Luna
makes her way no further than above heaven's leaves,
O, Something is a-foot my dear, something is a-foot my dear...
see them romp and find a solemn tune, while heroes
fall and ladies over worn take to swoon in the muddy mire,
see them behave in a way most dire and daring to dare my dear.
drinking deep of the darkest fire.
Something is a-foot my dear, yes, something is a-foot my dear...
see the sights transpire till all confound the truest Fire
and make their homes within the ground and leave to lies
the midnight hour haunts and surprise suffuses like dread
in the sweetest sounding abuses, and muffle cries in mire,
drinking deep of the darkest fire.
Something is a-foot my dear, something is a-foot my dear!
They wake and wring desire till all turn to the darkest fire--
see how low the shades aspire when hope is/has but to suspire
in delusion's mirror and the fairest face they see is near and there--
when they drink deep of the darkest fire.
A last thought 'fore parting, my last Thought's to do:
They shut themselves in darkness,
in darkness, not the light.
He shuts them up in darkness,
in darkness in the light.
---
(If you would like me to read this too you sometime with the strange, disturbing voice it would be my pleasure.)
3 Comments:
I am most definitely taking you up on your offer to read it in the voice!
But the tone and rhythm of the poem was intriguing. Your repetition created a sense of foreboding and yet it made it feel familiar, so the verses took on an uneasy comfort by the end of the poem. And the images of the people becoming more and more stuck in darkness and mire...you didn't give much detail on what it looked like, but you did speak well on the feelings and dangers and uneasyness that surrounded them. It became haunting...and again, somewhat familiar, and that made it all the more disturbing [i can elaborate more on that if you want...but i don't know if you want].
Quick question, in the last stanza you say "He shuts them up in darkness//in darkness in the light". Darkness in the light...it caught my attention, what are you saying with it? I'm curious as to what was going through your head.
I would say more, but I am going to go to bed so i can be somewhat awake tomorrow morning. I read a few of the other poems too, but i'll finish the rest tomorrow.
To answer your quick question, I do not like explaining what I write, but in this case I will make an exception...though the explanation will be brief.
I was using light in multiple ways...some what influenced by Psalm 36 and John 3:19 and Ephesians 5:7-14. The light is a knowledge of God and to talk in the light is to appropriate your heart and mind to who God is, in that light, we see our sins for what they are and despise them. That is, if we enter into the light and know Him (heeding God's call though Hosea, "let us know; let us press on to know the LORD 6:3a"). This ability to perceive being contrasted with the spiritual blindness of the Pharisees (John 9:39-41)--the light being His word--truth, knowledge of God, which sets you free (John 8:31-38). We can only see in His light for it is the only true light, the Pharisees made their own light--only in God's light can we see light, truth. By shutting themselves in their darkness/their own light they are blind and cannot see light. If we rebel against His light, His word, it judges us and our condemnation remains on us (John 3:18, 36; 12:48).
If we do not expose ourselves now to Him and confess our sins to Him (in truth, informed by who God is and His redemptive work in Christ), we will be shut up in the blackest darkness that is reserved for those who rebel against God.
I also use light in a different way, like Ephesians. I used it to refer to His judgment, when He reveals everyone's deeds in the light of His presence. No one can escape this light, the difference is whether or not we submit to or rebel against His light--whether we confess or trust in ourselves, loving our wicked deeds.
I supposed that the works of the wicked would remain eternally revealed. So, though they are shut up in their darkness (hell), they are still being revealed for what they are, they are shown to be wicked. God is glorified in this since He is shown to be just as they are shown to be wicked. Shutting them up in darkness in the light is just my way of thinking about judgment--being separated from God. Not of the light but judged by the light.
That last part though was not part of the poem. It is just a thought that I had while posting the main poem.
This was a quick explanation and I have not read it over. I do hope that it is somewhat intelligible. If you would like me to explain it again I will after Chaucer. Thank you for your feed back. I appreciate it.
Well it's certainly catchy. I've got 'something is afoot my dear' caught in my head and I've been humming it to a tune. I sang it once out loud and now the woman sitting next to me is murmuring it under her breath.
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