“POEM”
by Robert Bly
(Winter-Spring 1962)

I

If we are truly free and live in a free country,
When shall I be without this heaviness of mind?
When shall I have peace? Peace this way and peace that way?
I have already looked beneath the street
And there I saw the bitter waters going down,
The ancient worms eating up the sky.

II

Christ did not come to redeem our sins
The Christ child was not obedient to his parents
The Kingdom of Heaven does not mean the next life
God did not give our parents to us
No one in business can be a Christian
The two worlds are both in this world

III

The saints rejoice out loud upon their beds!
Their song moves through the troubled sea
The way the holy tortoise moves
From dark blue into troubled green
Or ghost crabs move above the dolomite.
The thieves are crying in the wild asparagus.

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