HORNÉD MOON

By

JACK PARSONS

When the maker's mask is shattered,

When the poet breaks his pen,

When the bright eternal player rends the veil;

When the company is scattered

And the lights extinguished, then

I shall greet you as a sister, face to face.

We shall smile—weep a little, laugh a while,

Look once backwards, then

Look forward and embrace.

We shall wander with the flowers,

In the clear eternal day,

Where the poem is perfected,

And the stars are in the play,

Know for ever is for ever; look

On God and find him good.

Greet eternity together with the perfect brotherhood.

Then—look downward out of

Eden—see the mortal shadow play,

See the blind aspiring spirits,

In their cerements of clay,

And in wonder, and in pity,

Turn our faces to the West,

Setting splendid out of Eden,

From the Islands of the blest—

Seek a prison, seek a body,

Seek a tomb, and seek a womb

Where memory is shattered in

The raw red new made flesh.

In the first faint cry of

Anguish and of joy and hope begun,

Hear our challenge to the powers and

Our greeting to the sun.

For a newer splendid poem,

For a better, finer play,

For a work begun in spirit and

Transmuted out of clay;

Forged of pity, beauty, terror,

Life and death, and smiles and tears,

Made of stars and clods together,

And the memories of the years,

And remember, Oh my darling,

We are spirits in disguise;

Let not mask or clay or

Sorrow hide the splendor in your eyes.

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