Orpheus Ascending
How long have i walked in this darkness?
Meeting no man, hearing none but my own voice
Asked to wind my way back home
alone--
but no, not truly i'm told;
My love walks behind, silent as a ghost.
Is this the folly of a cruel god?
Do the dead laugh now in the silence?
They told me that you are behind me,
and i must carry us home.
You are so real to me that i can almost see your face
before me--
Such memories of your touch
Which even now this place of dark and stillness tries
To steal away from me
(Have i drunk the waters of the Lethe?)
Yet i do not hear footsteps behind me;
I feel not your presence with me;
I walk only with my own faith
That the promise is true.
Would that i were born a fool!
Content to fall in love with shadows--
But i am a bard, not a fool,
and flesh is denser than promise.
Are you there, my love?
Do we walk together still?
I have been so long in this darkness--
Meeting no man, singing to myself
Climbing so slowly toward home...
9/11/04
Meeting no man, hearing none but my own voice
Asked to wind my way back home
alone--
but no, not truly i'm told;
My love walks behind, silent as a ghost.
Is this the folly of a cruel god?
Do the dead laugh now in the silence?
They told me that you are behind me,
and i must carry us home.
You are so real to me that i can almost see your face
before me--
Such memories of your touch
Which even now this place of dark and stillness tries
To steal away from me
(Have i drunk the waters of the Lethe?)
Yet i do not hear footsteps behind me;
I feel not your presence with me;
I walk only with my own faith
That the promise is true.
Would that i were born a fool!
Content to fall in love with shadows--
But i am a bard, not a fool,
and flesh is denser than promise.
Are you there, my love?
Do we walk together still?
I have been so long in this darkness--
Meeting no man, singing to myself
Climbing so slowly toward home...
9/11/04