Dream

I come alone to this unwholesome spot
    shut off from the passersby
where the garbage sprawls over acres
    and I recognize my collected consciousness
site of every care and feeling I disinherited
    and the air smells like the entrails of a disembodied animal

now I know how my natural spring of joy went underground
    choked up and went underground
buried by this debris
    no wonder!
I realize my fear of discovery
    cost me more dearly than any of those paltry sins
I hid    alas!


mcmlxx__ (rev. mmviii)

Solipsis

Take the eye of mind
    the longing i
    the knowing i
explore its subtle self
    as in a mirror
lit by the psyche's lambent flame

a cavern dark and subterranean
    where streaks of vapour
hide the recessed chambers
    to one who peeps
then looks askance

I have seen those caves
    have groped among the passages of self
explored the unreal dark
    and slept inside the tomb of yesterday
I learned to step ahead
    with ready foot
and ear attuned to echoes soft or strange

where sunlight creeps into the eastern hall
    there I awake to life
and mingle with the throng of feelings, presences
    and thoughts
that market-place    where I belong
    awake to self
my self-meant territory

mcmlx, rev. mmviii