For Whom I Play

Why should I wish to see God better than this day?

I am not   the poet of goodness.

I find one side a balance.

It alone   is without flaw, it alone   rounds   and   completes   all.

What is Reason? What is love? What is Life?

Your facts are useful, and yet   they are not my dwelling.

I mind them  or the show  or resonance of them -   I come   and I depart.

The talkers   were talking,   the talk of the beginning   and the end.

Trippers and askers surround me.

Which of the young men does she like the best?

O, I perceive after all so   many uttering tongues.

Ah,   the homeliest of them is beautiful to her.

The rest did not see her, but she saw them and loved them.

Do you guess

I have

some intricate purpose?

Clear and sweet is all that is my soul and clear and sweet is all that is not my soul,

but    I will tell you.

Every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.

and if they are not yours as much as mine

they

are

nothing.

When I give, I give myself.

But they are not the Me    myself.

Apart from the    pulling and hauling     stands    what I am.

Yet, I am GIVEN UP by traitors.

They have left me helpless to a red marauder.

I stand and look at them    long  and  long.

To and fro.

To and fro.

The panther walks,

to and fro.

Heat and smoke I inspired, I hear the YELLING SHOUTS of      my    comrades…?

I lie   in the night air   in my red shirt.

The pains of hell are with me

The pervading     h u s h     is for my sake.

Painless after all I lie exhausted but not so unhappy,

afterall, beautiful are the faces around me, their heads bared of their fire caps.

[They] will never sleep anymore.

No “friend of mine” takes his ease in my chair.

The kneeling crowd f a d e s with the light of the torches.

Now   I laugh content.

I hear the voice of My Captain:

“Stop this day and night with me and you shall possess the origin of all poems.

You shall no longer look through the eyes of the dead,

I and this mystery here we stand.”

I behold the picturesque giant and I love Him.

I love Him, though I do not know Him.

Long I was hugg’d close -   long   and long.

All the performers f    o   l  l ow Him.

Wandering amazed at my own lightness and glee,

we found our own.

It is time to explain myself - let us Stand UP!

I am satisfied - I see,   dance,   laugh,   sing.

O, unspeakable passionate love.

I believe  in you.

I like the h u m of your voice.

I guess it must be the flag of my disposition because

for me lips have smiled, eyes that have shed tears.

The city sleeps and the country sleeps,

the living sleep, the dead sleep.

With music strong I come,   my cornets and my drums,

I play not marches for accepted victors!

I play for conquer’d    and    slain persons

and of these

one and all

I weave the song   of   myself.

Do you see, O my brothers and sisters?

It is not  chaos or death   -   it is form, union, plan.

It is eternal life - it

is Happiness.