(chosen by David for Sunday 19th April)
"This is about the fate of our human heroes - we imagine their lives of effectiveness, energy - but really, after they have left us, what are they - stilled to just a symbol of what they meant to us, and destined to fade. Like cold, distant stars."
One by one they appear in
the darkness: a few friends, and
a few with historical
names. How late they start to shine!
but before they fade they stand
perfectly embodied, all
the past lapping them like a
cloak of chaos. They were men
who, I thought, lived only to
renew the wasteful force they
spent with each hot convulsion.
They remind me, distant now.
True, they are not at rest yet,
but now that they are indeed
apart, winnowed from failures,
the withdraw to an orbit
and turn with disinterested
hard energy, like the stars.