Age of Aquarius
A POEM
1
(Bitter are the blossoms
Conceived in time’ last spasm)
Myth flames black in silken wind,
Words shimmer on the tongue;
Bleak witchcraft poisons all the wells
And sickly bells are rung
2
Small is the shroud
Of the child who laughed in roselight
Fawning the leprous harlot sells
Mirages
Fevers
Taints and spells;
The imp who bloodies all the skies
Plucks out the drunken prophet’s eyes
The child born of music dies
3
Deathdevils dance to the piping of fools
While warlocks seize the children
dreamed in heaven
Sere grey suns now come to birth
To mock the shriveled ghost of earth:
Among the desolated flowers
Infants chant the ruined hours
Within the circle Satan cowers
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Borne up by priestly hands beyond the dark
The clean oblation of the harvest moon
…Many of Vanauken’s poems are reminiscent of Browning, Donne, the early Charles Williams, and others, in style, tone, and theme.
Poetry was once understood to be an anthropological episteme, a way of knowing, if only through a glass darkly.