I learned this group by reading a poem, which
is slightly more complicated, a poem it's
been rather anthologized.
And this really introduces a new influence I think,
and that's the-- or two new influences which
I haven't introduced or very little into my poetry before.
One is of Beethoven Quartets, so late Beethoven Quartets
and the other which seems rather oddly combined with it
perhaps is of Russian Revolutionary Movies.
Well, I was very influenced by photography
and by those very poetic films like Ten Days
That Shook The World and Earth and Potemkin and so on.
And I think in the last part of this poem
you'll see some of this idea, you'll now
have heroic figures standing against the sky, which
is photographed with a dark lens,
and so the clouds very white and the sky around the back
of the clouds is very dark, and the wind
is blowing across the grass that kind of thing.
I think continually of those who are truly great,
who from the womb remember the soul's history
through corridors of light, where the hours are
some endless and singing
Whose lovely ambition was that their lips still touched
with fire, should tell of the spirit clothed from head
to foot in song
And who hoarded from the spring branches,
the desires falling across their bodies like blossoms
What is precious is never to forget the essential delight
of the blood drawn from ageless springs,
breaking through rocks in worlds before our Earth
Never to deny its pleasure in the morning simple light
nor its grave evening demand for love
Never to allow gradually the traffic
to smother with noise and fog, the flowering of the spirit
Near the snow, near the sun, in the highest fields
see how these names are feted by the waving grass,
and by the streamers of white cloud,
and whispers of wind in the listening sky
The names of those who in their lives
fought for life, who wore their hearts the Fire Center
Born of the sun they traveled a short while towards the sun
and left the vivid air signed with their honor