Speech that came like leech-craft
And killed us almost, bleeding us
white!
You bleached our souls soiled
with impurities.
You bathed our hearts amid
tempestuous seas
Of a purer, drearier, delight.
O tongues of fire! You came
devouring
Forests of nightshade, creepers
that enmesh,
Trees that never remembered to
grow,
And shrubs that were but
thornmills in our flesh.
You were the dawn, and sunlight
filled the spaces
Where owls were hovering.
O winged seeds! You crossed the furrowed
seas
To nestle in the warm and silent
earth.
Like a golden swarm of fireflies
you came
Pining for a new agony, a new
birth.
You blossomed into a nascent
loveliness.
You ripened into nectar in
fruit-jars
That hung like clustered stars.
O winging words! Like homing bees
you borrow
Grown murmurous, the honey of
delight,
Pollened within our hearts the
coming morrow,
Sweetened within our souls for
aeons bright:
You kindle in the far corners of
the earth
The music of an ever-deepening
chant:
The burthen of a waneless,
winterless spring,
The gospel of an endless
blossoming.
Fathomless words, with Indo-Aryan
blood
Tingling in your veins.
The spoils of ages, global
merchandise
Mingling in your strains!
You pose the cosmic riddles:
In the beginning was the Word
And the Word was God.
The
Word is in the middle
And the Word is Man.
In the end will be the Word
And the Word will be God in Man.
- V
K Gokak
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