Chad Norman, Casa Harris, Truro, NS
Mary seated on a boulder;
a small sealed box in her arms
Break out the laughter for thoughts on Permanence.
The body’s wish to conquer,
overturn, easily erase
that final & trusted appearance,
the One
our shrunken circle saw as us:
as uncommonly solid:
as loyalty’s proof–
the mind opposes its own beauty!
Seal up the rupture & cracks lengthening in Love.
The eyes’ curse to recede,
surrender, kindly kindle
that unseen & awful shadow,
the Mystery
our current gloom dissolves in us:
in July’s desertions:
in ecstasy’s clasp–
the heart firms its own form!
Loveliness, full of awe, bring no words;
we end, one known by the needs of air,
and him, the sea’s bright child, free of vows.
Humankind, what a strange spell!
The poem, A Hymn For A Hymn, 1816, is part of my manuscript, Squall: Poems In the Voice Of Mary Shelley. The manuscript begins in 1822 when Percy Shelley drowned, and Mary goes to the beach where his body was cremated, and there begins to look back through their 8 years together. So each poem is a memory, that is why it is dated, in fact all them are dated. The poem is a hymn for his poem, Hymn To Intellectual Beauty.
