Initiations

Scar of the crucifix / over the breast, / by red blade inflicted / by red-hot blade, / on right breast witnesseth // mystery which I, initiate, / received newly naked / upon waters of the genesis / from Kepkanly. // Elemental, united in vision / of present and future, / the pure line, whose innocence / denies inhibitions. // At confluence of planes, the angle: / man loses man, loses vision; // so comes John the Baptist / with bowl of salt water / preaching the gambit: / life without sin, without // life; which accepted, / way leads downward / down orthocenter / avoiding decisions. // Or forms fourth angle — / duty, obligation: // square yields the moron, / fanatics and priests and popes, / organizing secretaries and / party managers; better still, // the rhombus — brothers and deacons, / liberal politicians, / selfish selfseekers — all who are good / doing nothing at all; // the quadrangle, the rest, me and you ... // Mystery, which barring / the errors of the rendering / witnesseth / red-hot blade on right breast / the scar of the crucifix. // and the Wand $fell with Haragin, / Kepkanly that wielded the blade; // with Haragin with God’s light between them: // but the solitude within me remembers Kepkanly ...

And this from Jadum, // (Say if thou knowest / from smell of the incense / a village where liveth / in heart of the grassland / a minstrel who singeth) // to shepherds, with a lute on his lip: // Do not wander in speargrass, / After the lights, / Probing lairs in stockings, / To roast / The viper alive, with dog lying / Upsidedown in the crooked passage ... // Do not listen at keyholes, / After the lights, / To smell from other rooms, / After the lights — // Singeth Jadum from Rockland, / after the lights. // And there are here / the errors of the rendering ...

And this from Upandru: // Screen your bedchamber thoughts / with sun-glasses, / who could jump your eye, / your mind-window, // And I said: / The prophet only the poet. / And he said: Logistics. / (Which is what poetry is) ... // And he said to the ram: Disarm. / And I said: / Except by rooting, / who could pluck yam tubers from their base? // And there are here / the errors of the rendering ...