Atlantis: Time And Tide Poem by Paul Wilson

THEN…

It was a friend who took me out
And in the language of a dream
Showed me the vista there, across the land,
In all the clearness of an abstract past,
Showed me the leaves which scattered on their host:
Some unknown spirit
Caressing the stillness…

The last autumn leaves are falling
Past the trees and men on benches;
They are old and curled with time
I have caught them on my negative…
Sunglight glides through
Crystal air; the knotted atom and
The cold heart of the tree;
The translucent leaf hangs
Motionless, remembered…

NOW…

O liquid spine of desire
And of accomplishment!
Cold winter breath through trees
Lacing air in, oxygen tight in the blood.
(My children are laughing far off in the future
- I remember them quite well) .

But here, now, haring time
Passes by; and a silverfish moon
Creeping and
Barring action
With refrigerated paths….

Refinement of contemplation to a point
Where wings are; the furthest star
Is the bell that brings
Back memory to the rage
Within, too much to bear….
You swear that I
Am wrong; but I declare
That I belong
- not here (o minnowmen!) ,
But far
down
there, in an ocean lair,
And that I yearn to join the voices in the shells,
Sleep long and deep in darkened caves;
Linger not by coral reefs
Where water flutes tell ocean griefs
And mermaids comb their silken hair
Nor sport by underwater pools
With minnowmen in last, lost schools…
Not forsake to dance on sands,
Or fight fraught frays in tinsel towns;
Hear bells that toll from sealed spires,
Until the muffled voices of the choirs
Make men awake from timeless sleep.
Flap limb and fin in swirls around, send sins
And sounds resounding down,
And leave the ripples dancing round…

SOON…

Break, not into, away! Words worse than pain,
Involving, dissolving, words obscure
The meaning, and the crystal
Becomes opaque….

Return them to their tideable homes, and pray,
Put new races in place, to play as they may,
As near as here, as soon as today;
Nearness, nearness, the sooncoming
Grace, pain housed in place….

Now in my dream I see a king
Who, seated on a broken throne
Rules over underwater realms unknown;
He blindly shifts his gaze around
And lets his tears fall to the ground…

Purchased
At dawn
For a wishbone
Token
And thrown…