Godhead

Grady McMurtry

18 May 1942

All day we two had wandered in the hills

And, wind-blown, sat ourselves at last to rest.

Within your hair the poppy bloom I wove

Then by your side stretched out upon the grass

And closed my eyes; But you would savor now

Each shifting scene that comes at close of day—

You speak the ecstasy of living flesh

And that to be alive upon the Earth

Is miracle enough – why search the cause.

But I

I saw not fields of green and flowers there

Nor woods beyond that shimmered in the glow

Of sunset hyperboreal, nor heard

The pleasant breeze caress our wearied feet.

I only know

As one enthralled in chains of levined fire

An emptiness that spread its hollow cloak

Across the gulfs of space,where atoms swirl

Close-latticed in the slag of stars that were.

The wind I felt caressed no mortal brow

But streamed athwart the face of one who stood

Implacable as Death, the chaos stormed

On cyclone wings that roiled the ordered spheres

To twisting vortices – before mine eyes

Volcanic geysers thundered as the suns

Exploded in the duress of the wrack

And I

I stood four-square that roaring blast

Looked steadfast down that bronzen maw of Hell—

and laughed.

[11]