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Best Poems From
ERIC RATCLIFFE
(Aug 8,1918)
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33.
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God And Mammon
Into the book the images disperse
as publishers perform their Act of God.
In subsequent appraisal of the verse
the critics' heads may either shake or nod
and closest friends may even mouth a curse,
finding a phrase that strikes them as most odd.
And yet some oddness is not really odd,
for associations in the brain disperse
in various modes. Some manifest a God,
a Devil or neurosis in their verse
- a resonance in thought promotes a nod
and dissonance provokes a silent curse.
And so we should be wise to every curse
laid on our poetry, as not so odd.
To help sound nightly sleep to soon disperse
the nightmares caused when critics upstage God,
we hold the right to give the world our verse
though only close relations praise and nod.
And yet, approval, causing heads to nod
can be a mental prison and a curse
when reality of life is judged as odd
if bodies burn and molecules disperse
- releasing astral bodies before God.
Are sense impressions then the founts of verse?
The imagery which furbishes much verse
would hardly cause an angel's head to nod;
retailers of such observations curse
the mystic world as useless and just odd.
Financial profits would decrease, disperse
if ledger headings bore the name of 'God'.
Eric Ratcliffe
Read more: poetry poems, angel poems, god poems, sleep poems, world poems, friend poems
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34.
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Humility of the Sea Gods
Of the northland wind
I told my green daughter,
and of the red wine
that sometimes came down
from broken men.
To the northland sky
through a vertical sea
she rode six glass fish
and saw boats sinking
to my open caves.
The northland men,
their melon-headed bodies
shrugged with water,
turning and chasing
on walls of waves.
The northland night
was pale with stars
and golden faces
and the travelling hail
was sudden with light.
Down the vertical sea
her green hands whispered
to my ocean floor.
'Sea-god father, sea-god father,
they are greater than we,
greater than we...'
Eric Ratcliffe
Read more: father poems, fish poems, daughter poems, sea poems, green poems, ocean poems, sometimes poems, water poems, red poems, wind poems, god poems, sky poems, light poems, night poems, fishing poems, star poems
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35.
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Lady Kneeling For Holy Communion
The red heathen faint beneath her skin, she kneels;
dark as a pagan brooch the shade around.
Nightbrush, God in a myrtle tree, the wine of wonder
- all three my delicate lady.
The bird in her curved eye, grey and lively, rises
in troth to bread and the holy goblet.
Beautiful peasant, moon-made and carnadine
- both my delicate lady.
Hers the vision inward, substance of love luminous,
sun on western fields, the smile of Glastonbury;
bird-call, hill-shine, maid of St Bride for all
- all my delicate lady.
Eric Ratcliffe
Read more: beautiful poems, tree poems, moon poems, smile poems, red poems, dark poems, sun poems, god poems, rose poems
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36.
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Naked River Spy 54 BC
O naked river spy,
iron in your singing voice,
watching a Dover bird hovering,
rising from your skins,
acting cocoon to the shy man
stroking his brown idol,
- you have sent seven hundred black horses
plunging through the wide wheat,
punishing hooves like thunderclouds
- surely the flesh of your wonder sisters
will walk in the fort of Casivellaunus!
O naked river spy,
daughter of the high sun,
we have driven the great stakes
into our white waters,
and we sit with our magic cups,
kneeling to the dark altar in the reeds.
We will take the hearts of a hundred Romans;
you have given us honey
and the yellow arms of our lamps
will touch gold to your hair
- surely you will sleep with men after the wine!
O naked river spy,
walking with the feet of light monkeys,
with the eyes of gods on our arrows,
as they come we will kill them
like jumping deer after the rain,
sinking the helmets of the metal strangers.
Go, sleep on the moon-floor of our moor-hut
(and hasten to clean your legs on the rushes)
- your round sly face will see a tall man
- he will be as warm as a fox!
Eric Ratcliffe
Read more: river poems, magic poems, daughter poems, sleep poems, rain poems, hair poems, moon poems, dark poems, sun poems, light poems, horse poems, sister poems, water poems, rose poems
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