Willow Walk

no choice but midnight

no choice but midnight left and this is hard

to take when day was joyous and so kind

that we were filled with blessings of good mind

but now few stars and every way is barred

vision is blurred and all the ground is charred

by wildest fire we have been left behind

by some harsh fate in this land of the blind

where all things good have been cut up and marred

there must be wisdom left for each to trace

the proper path to decent human sight

where everyone is worthy of their face

and every action leads each to the right

this is the hope to which we all must hold

that none can purchase though it lead to gold

an ancient wisdom

no resolution ever fell so flat

as this decree though most sincerely meant

to bring all to their senses and repent

their every crime laid out upon the mat

as subjects proper for our daily chat

those matters upon which no true consent

has been achieved and on which we were lent

not enough time and oh well that’s that

when we have signaled that the end is come

to all deception we receive no prize

but only grievances a mighty store

since at the last we find that no one’s dumb

who comes beneath the censure of our eyes

but each believes they truly know the score

unconsciousness

we sit here caught twixt history and text

interpreters of one more well-told tale

another weight that's added to the scale

of knowledge what wisdom comes unvexed

by normal suffering in the context

of work and study long before we ail

or fade into the dark with one last wail

that's the hard question leaving us perplexed

the act political we cannot doubt

must be for us the central urgent norm

for making easier the chance that curled

within the force that bids each one to shout

the truth and nature of the rising form

is the bright hope of an emergent world