The Street of Heavens
poetryfoundation.org
The Street of Heavens
That Nature is a Heraclitean Fire and of the comfort of the Resurrection
Cloud-puffball, torn tufts, tossed pillows | flaunt forth, then chevy on an air-
Built thoroughfare: heaven-roysterers, in gay-gangs | they throng; they glitter in marches.
Down roughcast, down dazzling whitewash, | wherever an elm arches,
Shivelights and
... See moreBetriz had it exactly backward. It wasn’t a case of storming heaven. It was a case of letting heaven storm you. Could an old siege-master learn to surrender, to open his gates?
Into your hands, O lords of light, I commend my soul. Do what you must to mend the world. I am at your service.
God of severe mercy, like Job, eventually I will lose everything — whatever treasures I have, my family, my health, my life. This bitter reality challenges my core motives: why am I following you? Who am I living this life for? Yet in this I rest: I belong to you, come what may. Amen.
Stagger onward rejoicing;
And even then if, perhaps
Having actually got
To the last col, you collapse
With all Atlantis shining
Below you yet you cannot
Descend, you should still be proud
Even to have been allowed
Just to peep at Atlantis
In a poetic vision:
Give thanks and lie down in peace,
Having seen your salvation.
And even then if, perhaps
Having actually got
To the last col, you collapse
With all Atlantis shining
Below you yet you cannot
Descend, you should still be proud
Even to have been allowed
Just to peep at Atlantis
In a poetic vision:
Give thanks and lie down in peace,
Having seen your salvation.
Atlantis by W H Auden - Famous poems, famous poets. - All Poetry
Fateful Voyage
The lot has been violently forced from our hands
and thrown to tenebrous, remote hinterlands –
but what, oh what, is it showing?
We’ve all climbed aboard midst an on-rushing current
that runs over any who try to return it –
but where, oh where, is it flowing?
We’re found belowdecks with each hand on an oar
as our master yells, “Pull!” with