“Credo”
Andrew Zawacki

You say wind is only wind
& carries nothing nervous
in its teeth.
I do not believe it.

I have seen leaves desist
from moving
although the branches
move, & I
believe a cyclone has secrets
the weather is ignorant of.
I believe
in the violence of not knowing.

I've seen a river lose its course
& join itself again,
watched it court
a stream & coax the stream
into its current,

& I have seen
rivers, not unlike
you, that failed to find
theirway back.
I believe the rapport
between water & sand, the advent
from mirror to face.

I believe in rain
to cover what mourns,
in hail that revives
& sleet that erodes, believe
whatever falls
is a figure of rain

& now I believe in torrents that take
everything down with them,

The sky calls it quits,
or so I believe,
when air, or earth, or air
has had enough.

I believe in disquiet,
the pressure it plies, believe a cloud
to govern the limits of night.

I say I,
but little is left to say it, much less
mean it --
& yet I do.

Let there be
no mistake:
I do not believe
things are reborn in fire.
They're consumed by fire.

& the fire has a life of its own.
Unknown "Princess" Loving - 16 years, 2 months ago

The Hollow Men by T. S. Eliot

Mistah Kurtz -- he dead.

A penny for the Old Guy

I

We are the hollow men
We are the stuffed men
Leaning together
Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!
Our dried voices, when
We whisper together
Are quiet and meaningless
As wind in dry grass
Or rats' feet over broken glass
In our dry cellar

Shape without form, shade without colour,
Paralysed force, gesture without motion;

Those who have crossed
With direct eyes, to death's other Kingdom
Remember us -- if at all -- not as lost
Violent souls, but only
As the hollow men
The stuffed men.
Unknown "Princess" Loving - 16 years, 2 months, 18 days ago

II


Eyes I dare not meet in dreams
In death's dream kingdom
These do not appear:
There, the eyes are
Sunlight on a broken column
There, is a tree swinging
And voices are
In the wind's singing
More distant and more solemn
Than a fading star.

Let me be no nearer
In death's dream kingdom
Let me also wear
Such deliberate disguises
Rat's coat, crowskin, crossed staves
In a field
Behaving as the wind behaves
No nearer --

Not that final meeting
In the twilight kingdom
Unknown "Princess" Loving - 16 years, 2 months, 18 days ago

III


This is the dead land
This is cactus land
Here the stone images
Are raised, here they receive
The supplication of a dead man's hand
Under the twinkle of a fading star.

Is it like this
In death's other kingdom
Waking alone
At the hour when we are
Trembling with tenderness
Lips that would kiss
Form prayers to broken stone.
Unknown "Princess" Loving - 16 years, 2 months, 18 days ago

IV


The eyes are not here
There are no eyes here
In this valley of dying stars
In this hollow valley
This broken jaw of our lost kingdoms

In this last of meeting places
We grope together
And avoid speech
Gathered on this beach of the tumid river

Sightless, unless
The eyes reappear
As the perpetual star
Multifoliate rose
Of death's twilight kingdom
The hope only
Of empty men.
Unknown "Princess" Loving - 16 years, 2 months, 18 days ago