Read Online Collected Poems by Alan; Sillitoe - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Alan; Sillitoe
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that his Fall was liberation.
HYMN TO LUCIFER
Lucifer is the True God:
Not the God of Man
Or the God of God
But the God of Light.
Luminous of eyes
Limitless of sight
A thousand million miles
Are his to roam.
Ice is no prison
Fire no opposite,
The sun a cool exit
To spaces beyond.
The earthâs inferno-centre
Cannot hold him,
Nor galactic spaces
Lose him.
LUCIFERâS REPORT
Newton did not go to church;
He hardly ever went to chapel:
He read Maimonides in bed
And pondered on the fallen apple.
The Board of Admirals agreed
That the first chronometer of Harrison
Was in spite of its complexity and size
Accurate beyond comparison.
Enigmatic Einstein vowed
Heâd see the hardy atom burst:
The world would shrivel to a cell
If Germany achieved it first.
God concurred, yet did not know
What the first flash would do to Him.
Lucifer hoped that God might die
When that smoke-hill hit the sky.
THE LAST CHANCE
Luciferâs simple scheme was to kill God
And create another
And after mutual annihilation
Crow the victor from their ashes â
Once they cooled.
Every plotter is naive, every planner blind:
On a calm and August morning
The boil burst.
The sea was in it and the sky
The centre of the earth took part
The sun and moon looked on
And thus participated. A particle
Of every man woman child
And other creature
That had been on earth since earth began
Will be remembered for connivance â
Lucifer made sure of that.
The sun went cool to let
This fiery flood of Lucifer-vomit
Like a cauliflower fist
Deal a belly-blow to God.
Scorched and broken
Lucifer fell back,
And wept.
LUCIFER AND JOB
Lucifer met Job.
He saw flame
He touched fire
But could not get close.
Endurance is a herb
The flame protects.
The sun comes
The sun goes â
Job spoke:
A flame lives on
In darkness.
Nor is it extinguished
By the sun.
LUCIFER AND NOAH
Noah believed,
Built his boat
Called his creatures
Two by two;
Lucifer watched
The floating city
On the flood,
Could not help
Hands whose fingers
Spread before they sank.
The void world
Was life for Lucifer.
He ruled a sea of corpses â
Yet welcomed Noah
Ashore at Ararat.
LUCIFER AND DANIEL
Seven famished lions
Circled Daniel
In Babylonâs oblivion-hole;
Eyes in darkness
Were the kingâs prisoners
And only Danielâs
Emitted light.
Your eyes hunger
Daniel spoke
But my hunger
Is greater.
The lions paced, bewildered,
As if Danielâs flesh was bitter
And God his fearlessness.
Since his Fall
Lucifer had never been so close.
LUCIFER IN SINAI â 1
Lucifer tramped from sea to sea,
Burning grit pained every step
An island moving through the land
From Carmel to the Mount of Moses.
Lucifer paid his forty days,
His flesh bled gravel
In the sleepless cool of the night,
Gypsum and alabaster glowed at the moon:
Although I fell
Although you threw me to the heathens
Although you scattered me among
The far stars of the universe;
Moulded me in ice, let heat dissolve me,
Melted me in fire, let ice find me,
My day is at hand, and the effect of every vision.
Say to me where my sanctuary is,
Scatter me back up the galactic chimney of the Fall.
Lucifer walked between crimson cliffs
Found garnets in the soil that matched
The stone embedded in his forehead
Scooped them to the foldings of his cloak
And walked another forty days.
Granite islands glistened in vast seas of sand.
The mountains of Arabia were blue:
The effect of every vision was at hand.
The Sinaitic wind beyond Ophir
Cleaned shattered tanks and guns.
Lucifer pressed the metal that his fire had holed and melted,
A camel rooted thorns between the wheels.
When dark drew on to Egypt
The effect of every vision was at hand.
LUCIFER IN SINAI â 4
Lucifer was the mirror of Godâs pride
Until his vanity
Created
Infamous
Fractures
Ending his reign yet marking his
Return to God.
Infamy
Stems
From believing pride
HYMN TO LUCIFER
Lucifer is the True God:
Not the God of Man
Or the God of God
But the God of Light.
Luminous of eyes
Limitless of sight
A thousand million miles
Are his to roam.
Ice is no prison
Fire no opposite,
The sun a cool exit
To spaces beyond.
The earthâs inferno-centre
Cannot hold him,
Nor galactic spaces
Lose him.
LUCIFERâS REPORT
Newton did not go to church;
He hardly ever went to chapel:
He read Maimonides in bed
And pondered on the fallen apple.
The Board of Admirals agreed
That the first chronometer of Harrison
Was in spite of its complexity and size
Accurate beyond comparison.
Enigmatic Einstein vowed
Heâd see the hardy atom burst:
The world would shrivel to a cell
If Germany achieved it first.
God concurred, yet did not know
What the first flash would do to Him.
Lucifer hoped that God might die
When that smoke-hill hit the sky.
THE LAST CHANCE
Luciferâs simple scheme was to kill God
And create another
And after mutual annihilation
Crow the victor from their ashes â
Once they cooled.
Every plotter is naive, every planner blind:
On a calm and August morning
The boil burst.
The sea was in it and the sky
The centre of the earth took part
The sun and moon looked on
And thus participated. A particle
Of every man woman child
And other creature
That had been on earth since earth began
Will be remembered for connivance â
Lucifer made sure of that.
The sun went cool to let
This fiery flood of Lucifer-vomit
Like a cauliflower fist
Deal a belly-blow to God.
Scorched and broken
Lucifer fell back,
And wept.
LUCIFER AND JOB
Lucifer met Job.
He saw flame
He touched fire
But could not get close.
Endurance is a herb
The flame protects.
The sun comes
The sun goes â
Job spoke:
A flame lives on
In darkness.
Nor is it extinguished
By the sun.
LUCIFER AND NOAH
Noah believed,
Built his boat
Called his creatures
Two by two;
Lucifer watched
The floating city
On the flood,
Could not help
Hands whose fingers
Spread before they sank.
The void world
Was life for Lucifer.
He ruled a sea of corpses â
Yet welcomed Noah
Ashore at Ararat.
LUCIFER AND DANIEL
Seven famished lions
Circled Daniel
In Babylonâs oblivion-hole;
Eyes in darkness
Were the kingâs prisoners
And only Danielâs
Emitted light.
Your eyes hunger
Daniel spoke
But my hunger
Is greater.
The lions paced, bewildered,
As if Danielâs flesh was bitter
And God his fearlessness.
Since his Fall
Lucifer had never been so close.
LUCIFER IN SINAI â 1
Lucifer tramped from sea to sea,
Burning grit pained every step
An island moving through the land
From Carmel to the Mount of Moses.
Lucifer paid his forty days,
His flesh bled gravel
In the sleepless cool of the night,
Gypsum and alabaster glowed at the moon:
Although I fell
Although you threw me to the heathens
Although you scattered me among
The far stars of the universe;
Moulded me in ice, let heat dissolve me,
Melted me in fire, let ice find me,
My day is at hand, and the effect of every vision.
Say to me where my sanctuary is,
Scatter me back up the galactic chimney of the Fall.
Lucifer walked between crimson cliffs
Found garnets in the soil that matched
The stone embedded in his forehead
Scooped them to the foldings of his cloak
And walked another forty days.
Granite islands glistened in vast seas of sand.
The mountains of Arabia were blue:
The effect of every vision was at hand.
The Sinaitic wind beyond Ophir
Cleaned shattered tanks and guns.
Lucifer pressed the metal that his fire had holed and melted,
A camel rooted thorns between the wheels.
When dark drew on to Egypt
The effect of every vision was at hand.
LUCIFER IN SINAI â 4
Lucifer was the mirror of Godâs pride
Until his vanity
Created
Infamous
Fractures
Ending his reign yet marking his
Return to God.
Infamy
Stems
From believing pride
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