In Memoriam Hart Crane
When first your serpent’s eye of wisdom
Lifted up to light, you might have known
There is no salvage from a sacrifice:
A flawed heart hurled like a broken die
Upon the altar of a prodigal quest
For the sperm whale’s fabled ambergris
Among the scattered seamen of the world.
Below the Southern Gulf ’s steep swell,
Beckoning onward but unseen,
The Inverted Cross arose and fell.
The alien constellation led
To Vera Cruz. (Night lay in wait,
A tangle of orchids rank with blood.)
Whirled from the Zodiac then, scarred
And pitted knuckles recoiled and struck,
And your myth collapsed like a House of cards.
Into the dark obsidian sea,
Into the dark sea, bow-wave and stern-wake
White with phosphor, arched and flung
Your long and lightly tossing bones.
Sleep now, poor castaway, and rest.
What’s cast away can’t be called lost,
And no dreams break
In the sea’s bed or the belly of the shark.
O Master and original, most rare
Mixed metaphor! Among
Galaxies of islands your fantasy was spun,
In flights of stars and drifting foam.
http://www.the-athenaeum.org/art/full.php?ID=30293
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