McKane's Falls - James Merrill

Mar 18, 2011 17:00

Come live within me, said the waterfall.
There is a chamber of black stone
High and dry behind my stunning life.
Stay here a year or two, a year or ten,
Until you've heard it all,
The inside story, deafening but true.

Or false --- I'm not a fool.
Moments of truth are moments only,
Eyes burning on the brink of empty beds.
The years wink past, the current changes course.
Ruined by tin-pan blues
The golden voice turns gravelly and hoarse.

Now you've seen through me, sang the cataract,
A fraying force, but unafraid,
Plunge through my bath of plus and minus both,
Acid and base,
The mind that mirrors and the hands that act,
Enter this inmost space

Its lean illumination decompose,
Sun's rose wash on the wall,
Moon clinging like the Perils of Pauline ---
God knows I haven't failed her yet!
And yet how far away they seem, how small,
Get me by heart, my friend,

And then forget, Forgive
These bones their hollow end, this amulet
Its wearer who atones.
All things in time grow musical.
How can you live without me? While I live
Come live within me, said the waterfall.

- from McKane's Falls by James Merrill

james merrill

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