"I am not one who was born in the custody of wisdom. I am one who is fond of olden times and intense in quest of the sacred knowing of the ancients." Gustave Courbet

25 December 2022

Guide.


Ghazal for Christmas
    
Unbind my hair, she says. The night is white and warm, 
the snow on the mountains absorbing the moon. 
We have to get there before the music begins, scattered, 
elliptical, needing to be drawn together and sung. 
They have dark green voices and listening, there are birds, 
coal shovels, the glazed hysteria of the soon-to-be-dead. 
I suspect Jesus will return and the surprise will be 
fatal. I’ll ride the equator on a whale, a giraffe on land. 
Even stone when inscribed bears the ecstatic. Pressed to 
some new wall, ungiving, the screams become thinner. 
Let us have the tambourine and guitars and forests, fruit,
and a new sun to guide us, a holy book, tracked in new blood.

Jim Harrison

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