Quote:
Originally Posted by Ed Shacklee
I haven't seen Kathleen Raine mentioned, so I thought I'd offer this:
The Pythoness
I am that serpent-haunted cave
Whose navel breeds the fates of men.
All wisdom issues from a hole in the earth;
The gods form in my darkness, and dissolve again.
From my blind womb all kingdoms come,
And from my grave seven sleepers prophesy.
No babe unborn but wakens to my dream,
No lover but at last entombed in me shall lie.
I am that feared and longed-for burning place
Where man and phoenix are consumed away,
And from my low polluted bed arise
New sons, new suns, new skies.
xxxxx- Kathleen Raine
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I’m glad you mentioned her, Ed. I have her
Collected next to my desk these days. She has some gems. Here’s another:
The World
It burns in the void
Nothing upholds it
Still it travels.
Traveling the void
Upheld by burning
Nothing is still.
Burning it travels
The void upholds it
Still it is nothing.
Nothing it travels
A burning void
Upheld by stillness.
—Kathleen Raine
And her study of Blake is, I think, the best that's been done.
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