We’re strangers undetermined of
Where madness rules the lives of men,
Where he who dares design of love
Lives not to dare the deed again.
Beware of love! Be lonely, lad.
There is no death that can compare
Where loving hearts are crucified,
And multitudes of men are there.
LONE CELLO
Too much is incomplete. Let’s make an end
Of all the fond impossible dreams we’ve dreamed,
And when we part,
We were not meant to be
Too closely here companioned where the thorn
Of our red love transfixes joy’s brief crown.
The roses wither, time itself decays,
And log-lit embers fall to ashes when
The memory of the flame no longer glows.
We rode to Echo Canyon and your smile
Ran naked through the chambers of my heart.
Now lonely cellos must out parting sing
As when some cool green afternoon lets fall
From one high branch a few wind-weary leaves.
We grow too old too suddenly. Farewell!
APOCALYPSE
These are the seeds of the future,
The weary, the wretched, the slain.
These are the ghosts we shall harvest
In wars that shall come again.
These are the fields we have furrowed,
The dreams that have fallen apart,
And this is the plow of our madness,
The fear that has entered the heart.
Oh, how shall we welcome the reaper
When autumn shall fill the air,
When all the hope of the springtime
Is cut with the edge of despair?