Disiderata & the Red Earth’s Eyes

The sweat gushes up
from my namesake marrow
Red stuff of bones
The sweat snakes through
Thick and narrow
Passes then by hair
On its way to the whole
Reaching airward
To the sky
Reaching, the sweat
Moves toward
The brow
and world outside
that strangest reservoir
of dogs and diffident whores
I shall not return
Till Surgeon’s cuts
Release my oaths
Till Emperor’s hands
Touch the Stone
and the Maid returned
to the Foremost Land
our cavernous
abode

The sweat flows
till gushing
gives she birth to wings
blushing
that scrape the bright-red
earth, soundless
expressing
their critical worth
in movements
and silhouettes
as wry as they are
terse

A bird born
A bird birthed
The song sung
The song served
A bird born
A bird birthed

crashes
gladly to the earth!

And those beyond
Above
Around in the Reservoir
The World
They know me not
Nor never have
Have never seen
This inside land
Of pleasure domes
Of air and sky
And winsome blinks
of worldly eyes
Know they not
The Desideratum
The Stone
The Maid
The Pyre!
The Desiderata!
My mire!

In which
I sink gladly
I gladly sink
in my desire

and from it
staring
learn

and in it
staring I do
confer

sharing long hours
with the Emperor

and so need not know
his jealous sons
need not believe
the lying ones

The Sorceror
The Sage
Economy
False wage!

I
Have
The Flame

I
Know
Its Name

I
Kill
The Dual Banes

of

Sister
Shame

of

Brother
Lame

Burning
The flickering
Flickering
The game

Killed in me
I’ve burned
That old complaint

And descended
Into the Earth

Such eyes, these eyes

Are huge!

Below! Now!

Surprise! They stir…
The Earth, madams and sirs,
is alive.

Creaking, the red earth
Has hands
Creaking, the red earth
Rumbles
Shifts
Stands

A finger, a hand
A ring like a man’s
And blood gushing
Magma
And the mouth
A cavernous hole

Speaks
Growls

Low
cavernous
Cavernous
and low

Who there then
Descends to be
The first in years
To sing to me

Who is he?

Who are ye?

Red Earth
I am
Red Earth
is me

He creaks
And groans
His words
So slow
An hour passes
Before the first one
Goes
And days
Before a sentiment
Is known

One must listen
And listen close
If one would hear
The Red Earth
speak

But I
Have found
Patience

In sweat’s smart beads

And I
Have learned
To listen

In sweat’s sharp teeth

And he
Is speaking
Even now

As I confess
I am at peace

And so I declare
That nothing
Worthwhile
Comes
Without its lover:
Sweat

For sweat cuts
Even stones
I see as much
As mine burns
Red Earth’s brow
Below me now

A tattoo there shaded
In his vast, dark scowl

A print: a wing: a woody owl
Tattooed below
Red Earth’s fair cowl
My design
There born
From sweat’s frightful
toil: a world takes form
in Red Earth's ancient soil

And as I wait for his
ribald words to fly
Ennui strikes me not
Boredom passes by

I go inside
I go inside
And find

an English ayre
a reservoir
a hidden aerie
of beats and hums
within my core
up high, aloft
safe within me

the sweat is a song
and singing, revolves
in circles wide and long
spiraling, designed
to purge the spirit’s wrong

And seeps, oh seeps and trickles!
Rivulets abound
A bright-blue Byzantium
Of light, of sweat, of sound!

Cascades, runs runs down
In flames, in small blue flames
Careens, tumbles, redounds

And begins again

The sweat is true
The sweat is real
The sweat is pure
The sweat is cruel

and without a doubt
it is

and it is teaching lessons
to

All between
Clandestine
All below
Destined
All above
Required

The sweat is feared
So too desired

As hammers mark the stone
And the workman carves the bone
So too is sweat desired

For she burns
And tattoos
Even the Earth
And sets straight
Even liars

With a sigil and a rhyme:

First a circle, then a line
The Emperor’s profoundest sign
Of one, then two
From thence: design
The Emperor’s circle
And line

I draw it
with my work’s result
a flood of words
from my avian throat

Sing I thus for Red Earth now
And wait I for his reply
Having asked: asked I

Where will I the Surgeon find?

I wait now
for Red Earth’s reply
my wings upon his eyes

We wait now
for Red Earth’s
bright eyes to open
and opening, share new signs
and arts

with we his listeners
who long wait for him to speak
'gainst they who differ
and kill his languid speech

in their desperate hearts

Read the Lyric from the Beginning