Pavilion Fountain: After the Funeral (Nov. 25, 196

      Winter's never here at the fountain
      Whose waters' liveliness seems a warm 
      And open candor. Things are but things and do as they must:
      As in the fountain's pallorous spangling forever
5     Heaviness and  light contest.
      Beyond the torus of its halo
      The summery waters' motions endeavor,
      With the tear-bright dignity of an eye in agony,
      To show how lightly may a substance go
10    An afflatus of divinity.
      All things to their opposite use
      Tortured, as when this lithesome watercourse
      Was narrowed from easy murmur into gladdened sound,
      Reveal some laden tale of their earthly course
15    Returning to their source.
      As when like tears to ground we streak  
      And the opened waters that accompany burial
      Flow in broken speech, so the startled water, at its arc
      Interpenetrate of scattered light, torridly tumbles
20    All rainbows to one stone bowl.
      Something had sung up 
      From the dark watered words summoned to console
      Bodied brightness; as when we ourselves, by a terrible pity pul-
      Led vocal from the womb, tighten and squall 
25    To give creation's own 
      Cry to the beautiful.

 

From the collection "The Sword Inside"

Written by Gregg Glory [Gregg G. Brown]

More information available on gregglory.com.