Poems (Tree)/The Complex Life
THE COMPLEX LIFE
I KNOW it to be true that those who liveAs do the grasses and the lilies of the fieldReceiving joy from Heaven, sweetly yieldTheir joy to Earth, and taking Beauty, give.
But we are gathered for the looms of FateThat Time with ever-turning multiplying wheelsSpins into complex patterns and concealsHis huge invention with forms intricate.
Each generation blindly fills the plan,A sorry muddle or an inspiration of GodWith many processes from out the sod,The Earth and Heaven are mingled and made man.
We must be tired and sleepless, gaily sad,Frothing like waves in clamorous confusion,A chemistry of subtle interfusion,Experiments of genius that the ignorant call mad.
We spell the crimes of our unruly days,We see a fabled Arcady in our mind,We crave perfection that we may not find.Time laughs within the clock and Destiny plays.
You peasants and you hermits, simple livers!So picturesquely pure, all unconcernedWhile we give up our bodies to be burned,And dredge for treasure in the muddy rivers.
We drink and die and sell ourselves for power,We hunt with treacherous steps and stealthy knife,We make a gaudy havoc of our lifeAnd live a thousand ages in an hour.
Our loves are spoilt by introspective guile,We vivisect our souls with elaborate tools,We dance in couples to the tune of fools,And dream of harassed continents the while.
Subconscious visions hold us and we fashionDelirious verses, tortured statues, spasms of paint,Make cryptic perorations of complaint,Inverted religion, and perverted passion.
But since we are children of this age,In curious ways discovering salvation,I will not quit my muddled generation,But ever plead for Beauty in this rage.
Although I know that Nature's bounty yieldsUnto simplicity a beautiful content,Only when battle breaks me and my strength is spentWill I give back my body to the fields.
1917