Dánta aniar aduaidh

Venus on the Rocks

(Oh God, be my Living Stone!)

Prologue:
O you sweeten, sweetest lyre,
        Burning immortal to the heart of desire,
Enflaming in Man the nature of love,
        All love in the nature of man!

The Poem:

That eve
That eve
I studied all those things,
Those necessary things,
That influenced my heart and judgement and my youth;
(Oh, I was young then!)
Oh raging seas, brilliant colours,
Tastes and smells:
Moving symphonies;
All worthless to me now.
It was the Sea that called me,
Sea that moved me now!

Of Livingstone I'll tell you naught.
Not a whisper will I murmur,
But still my heart in silence -
My heart bleeds on in silence!

I think I saw a poem I had read;
It said:

"Have you ever spent
                    African night,
Felt broil-ed ponderous labours
        eyes evils fears crickets
            bushes snakes and heat?
Know now
    Midnight labours dark in Africa
(Wild, majestic continent!
        Momentous to extremes,
A monolith of Gaea )
Black for nubile, dark as Death,
Mysterious,
        Wond'rous, far-outstretch-ed
Miracle!
        Her tender heart, be-jungle-ed
By Moonlight high
        Ab'o'er Her streaming mantle,
Lies in bondage and in secret
        From all men,
Where it is dark.
Light came but once;
The Cullinan or Star could not
        outsparkle it;
It was a Living Stone.

Now
        Is the hard wood weather-ed,
(Let the 'Stone-breaker' come
                             and I will meet him.)
Through the wither-ed grasses, parching,
will the fresh plains green
Vibrant raise and rust'ling;
                                    Blasted!
Battered, broken down and lying!
Down'd and hacked! Bitter.
                                    Anguish cracked!
My doctor yearns and burns and dies.

            He prays for Thee:
"My name is Universal,
            Amongst the poorest of the poor
I am not tied down:
            I will go for Thee.
Born on an island,
            I will love all Men for Thee.
I am no islander.
My  hearts and loves are borderless,
            O My God!
No politics have they.
            Let me be wings - Let me fly! - I want to fly!
It is the very Earth I love.
It is the world, the many-peopled world -
            I love the World!
            Let me be wings I want to fly
            Let fly! Let me fly!
It is my brother mother, Father!
I will love all Men for Thee!
I love the trees!
I love the sky!
I love the meadows and the light!
The lilies, wasps and lakes
Do not escape my eyes.
All travelling things and things
                                  That stand are mine.
All white and black
            All coloured, plain and check.
I have one Father, my Love;
I have one Love
            And am of everything
In all Creation bless-ed and beloved.
            In Africa am I thus;
           In Africa therefore let me die.
O the Sea has washed upon the shore,
The Shore upon my face,
            (I am facing all Africa!)
The rivers to the Sea:
Old Man, this Continent and I are truly brothers;
            In Truth, in Your Truth. Amen."

Since the dawn of the Ages I was with him.
From the birth of the World was I formed
            And he,
A Silver Sun, blistered on my origin.

Thus:

"You are my island in the North for me.
You are the stars in the South for me.
You are the stars -
            The very light of day."
Would I address him.

Thus:
Bitter tastes the mouth of Woe[
Lord, I cannot strand it -
It burns me. My soul is burned.
My heart is swelled within my breast
            with pounding at my grief

For Livingstone is dead.

My Living fire and roaring stone -

Wizened little be-spindle-ed burning man!

            Spent his life to God,

and craven gold with prospered not;

But gained another crown,

Another laurel crown.

            In the Court of Ages

They will name him.

A thousand prayers in Brighton

            Have I made.

And still I to the breezes cry,

Gentle tears flowing;

            Ever-knowing,

From stone to stone they fall;

And the cold wind blows.

Oh the fastnesses of Nature!

            Drink her wine:

            Brilliant Xanthus, honey-wine:

Saffron-gay!

            (I see old Brighton's Winter come.)

Saffron-gay, a-brumal witherings

            Browning, browning

                            Withering away,

            (picked by the sun)

Shine and mellow precious light -

Like Africa.

Deeper blue

            Than Beauty has e'er seen

             Is in the sky,

And the waters that are crushing like diamonds or ice

            are sparkling! - Waves

Attempt to foster Venus on the Rocks.

Jagg-ed hard calculating 

Brutal ragged Rocks,

A rugged man about you runs

                            His fingers to the bone-fire of the night!

It is his Venus o're the Rocks, he cries tears.

He loves Thee!

(O! by now it cannot stop!)

The Rock's aflame! The Rock's aflame!

Thundering break the bellowing waves

            Heart;

Cascade and roll

            Crash, crumble

Burst and bellowing like Hell, they shatter

             Spatter!

My tears aflame! My tears aflame!

God! the sea-wet salt-weed

            Burns on the shore!

Here, it lies, it dries, and dies, and lies

            On the cold grey stones, O Sea!

(Heart, you are free to love!)

God will serve you, Living Stone of Fire!

Living!

Dead.

Alive.

God's.

Sublime! Sublime!

My breast is most sublime! -

In anguish have I called

                                for dark

Enslaved I cry!

Release your darkness, endless night,

Break bonds and Freedom take!

The messages have come.

("How far can one admire, love another man?

In Livingstone - the mission'ry - I knew!")

 Be judge to bold Arabia!

            Tabora is accurs'd!

            My Father ever knew you.

(Livingstone is my father.)

            My father held you dear!

The Wind in the Sky is incessant.

Crack the sky!

The little fish is in the sea

            He's smiling

            He's smilng

He hates me.

             I am alone on Brighton beach,

(Brighton, has it changed?)

On the pale sands.

Calmly will I walk to Midnight

            By Moonlight thinking:

"All things dear belong to Thee,

My Africa."

I am not alone. On Brighton beach -

Brighton, has it changed? -

I am not alone.

Always All ways I am with you;

In Scythia, in Turkistan -

            Abu Simbel knows me -

I am with you, O Rock of Africa,

            O Africa,

            My heart!

(You know the very beating of my heart.)

(The waves are my heart.)

(O God, be my Living Stone!)

And now I was above all this,

            My heart?

Dublin, 2 November 1972

     

The Names of Love

(A Homage)

The two names of Love are Delight and Care,
of this I am sure, this I do swear:
that both are found in every love,
that neither alone has breath nor life.

Delight is the love in the heart that beats
pierced by joy at the thing it greets,
and in that wound, no one deny,
are hidden tears from a secret eye!

Care is a new love, strangely old;
it weighs the beloved like precious gold,
and finding when that gold is true
laughs in the hope of its joy anew!

So either love must bring the other,
and neither be denied the lover!


Dublin, 10 August 1979

I Have Prayed That I Could Not See

I have prayed that I could not see,
For what has seeing done for me?
I've danced and danced 'round the gilded spire,
like the moth, mesmerized by fire.
I've looked and looked, and never seen,
so what has looking done for me?

I have prayed to wake up blind,
to have to listen, learn to understand;
it's no use guessing, when you cannot see,
and when I close my eyes, I'm free!
The sense of touch, the gift of hearing
suffice for life, for love, for knowing!


Dublin, 23 June 1979

Time's Fool

(A Mockery)

Love, what shall I call you? Time's Fool!
Multi-coloured Harlequin of the Night,
You dance till the final flourish of the festival expires!
Love, you dancer! Love, you joker! Fool!
And when at mealtime we are gathered together,
Who stands in the corner with his quick words,
His tales, his songs, his lusty glances, music?
Fool! - You entertain us!

But all the while you reign in sovereign glory,
Mock-king, your realm, so rich in fancy,
Rich in simple, rich in sad delights,
Must melt like wax before the dawning Sun,
Which wakes us, one by one, to the tenderest of follies,
that in the night, when fools are King, we dreamt!


Castletownsend, 30 May 1979

Worms

(On Hearing Mozart)

We who wander in the Mud never know
the Light that shines above.
All our lives in Mud,
we writhe and wriggle, little knowing!

Loves and pleasures, we have our own,
among our kind and of our kind,
daily weaving to and fro
pushing, pulling towards new goals!

Life has planned it out for us,
what we want and what we don't;
never would it enter our little heads
to wander slowly upwards!

But some have been there and returned,
some have broken through the crust
and God! The Light!
The Light that shone on them!

Was is like loam? Was it like sand?
We ask, attempting to conceive it.
No, it was not. It was pure,
and rich and meaningful!

And on we squirm and on we squelsh,
leaving trails of slime behind,
churning up the rich brown soil,
eating as we go.

Of all the things that we can do,
how few are worth the effort;
the nonsense of this muddy earth,
and the Meaning of the Light!

We see not, comprehend not,
desire not the Unseen;
all our sins come down to this,
all are lack of hope!


Dublin, Monday 14 November 1997

Resurrection

With the first light of dawn I was born again.
As the sun touched the hill my eyes opened wide
and a smile rang from here to Eternity,
Eternity and back again.
I smiled and the race smiled with me,
for I was become the race
and the race smiled in me.

Joy was mine! Joy was released
like the floods of antiquity,
and the Spirit moved in the waters
and brought forth prodigies
of a New Creation,
while I, with an artist's hand,
a man grown full,
pushed the rock back from Death,
and in my eyes that clear innocence
that is forever seeing stood serene...

Searching out, I found myself
two hours later, standing here,
hearing tears wept for me
by a child of love:
"Wherefore do you weep for me?
I am here, for I am He."

Dublin, April 1976