Thirty Years Ago

Thirty years ago And even less I used to go Out in the gardens Breathe the air Feel as I passed Through sentinel trees An earthly emperor. But that time passed: The brain Cannot come to terms With slipping time: Yet The clock reads so And so it be. Ticking less and Less My clock of biology: The glistening iron Of the guillotine Comes down slow But remorseless Then Thirty years ago And even less Of love of life Business power Glory talked I Acquisitions and advances Material all They put me in trances. But now Now Now my blood has cooled Under of experience The anvil Now I look not on Acquisitions though Glimpses of the olden Wishes come and go But they go Thirty years ago Remained they: And now Even in my verse Of graves and skeletons And ghosts and shrouds Of dusk pining and Night’s long silences The stars, the dawn That comes and goes And comes again by rote: These These I chant now These I sing: These my vocabulary The notes of my song The sounds of my sad violin And Now Now It be night On the scented waves The spirits of the night Transparent sail and go And From my turret high I look on the dark seas Know And will to go: Go To the land that’s Far And far away. Sooner or later Same result will be And I will go Go far away and Dissolve As snows at touch of sun All my persona All my things My all My All in One My One in All, I go Resting.