Smoke from This Altar (1990) Read Online Free Page B

one is of ape-like plan, Formed like a beast that resembled man: A freakish thing, with arms a-swing,
    And he was the third of that gruesome clan. The first I stabbed with a Chinese knife, And left on the white beach sand,
    With his ghastly stare, and blood-soaked hair, And an out-flung, claw-like hand; The fat one stole a crumbling crust, That he wolfed in his swineish waySo I left him there, with eyes a-glare,
    And his head cut off half-way.
    We fought to kill, the brute and I, That the one that lived might eat, So I killed him too, and made a stew, And dined on human meat.
    And so these three come to visit me, When without the night winds howl The one with the leer, the one with a sneer, And one with a brutish scowl; Their lips are dumb, but the three dead come And crouch by the hollow grate The man that I stabbed, the man that I cut, And the gruesome thing that I ate.
    Their lips are sealed, with blood congealed, But they will not let me be, And so they haunt, grim, ghastly, and gaunt, Till death shall set me free.
    I have three friends, three faithful friends, More faithful could not be And every night, by the dim firelight, They come to sit with me.
    *

Smoke From This Altar (1990)

IN AN OLD TEMPLE
    Into that stillness I could never thrust
    A lance of sound so harsh as human word, To stir the sleeping echoes from the dust That now are lying empty and unheard;
    I could but whisper softly to the ghosts And linger there a moment as in prayer, Adding another to the voiceless hosts Unnumbered ages have abandoned there.
    *
    THE SEA, OFF VANUA LEVU
    There is a beauty in this beyond believing,
    A strength that is stronger than the hands of men, There is a glory in this that is greater than grieving That brings a stillness to my heart again; There is a power in this beyond longing or laughter, A grandeur unmeasured by cloud or sky
    There is a sounding here, and an echo afterA sounding of surf and a sea-gull's cry; There is an ending here, for the time, of emotion Of sorrow and sadness, of envy and fear;
    All these are forgotten beside the wide ocean, That gray rolling splendor, cold and austere.
    *

Smoke From This Altar (1990)

IF THERE IS BEAUTY
    If there is any beauty after this Or any quiet joy, or imagery Of happiness that we may share, then we Must never hesitate, nor be remiss; If in the after years the deep abyss
    Of sorrow draws you close, and mournfully The old d reams die, then you must turn to me And to this love that needs no emphasis.
    If, when tomorrow comes, the things you knew No longer are, but like an empty town Whose windows catch the fading sunset flame, Your eyes reflect your loneliness, and you
    Watch one by one the swifter years go downThen turn to me, for I shall be the same.
    *

Smoke From This Altar (1990)

SHIP ACROSS THE SKY
    White wings across the morning, Dark sails against the moon, Scudding along in the spindrift While the trade-winds croon; Dark hull against the blue, White spars across the skyLike a song from out of the distance And clear as a sea-gull's cry;
    Hull down against the horizon And royals across the gray, I saw it fade into the distance Sailing my dreams away.
    *
    McVEY
    It did not matter who or what he was Before he came to these sun-spattered hills, Or why he chose that wind-tormented ridge
    The scene of his grim struggle with the soil; He seemed to love it there, the sky so near
    It almost touched the gnarled and twisted trees. And often when the rain in frenzy heat Against the staring windows and the roof, Flooding the planted fields to leave them bare, And mark another year of fruitless toil, We'd see him out beneath the lowering sky Undaunted by the storm, while lightning leaped From pinnacle to pinnacle of
    cloud.
    While thunder rolled and rumbled off away Sulking and sullen like a baffled hound, To lose itself in distance down the hills
    Like the whimper of far-off trumpets, or waves Growling among the boulders worn and old. On sunny days he'd
    watch the racing clouds Go