Ragnarok - XXI
The man turned round and smiled. As when the blobs Of seeming random ink click suddenly Into an image unmistakable Of a familiar human face without The slightest alteration in themselves, But only in the one who stares, and stares, And stares,...
Ragnarok - XX
"Man's voices have been silent for too long. His songs are gone long unsung. Man has been Long disenchanted in this latter age. What songs are sung in triumph, and what hymn Is raised to god or gods above the stars? How often is there heard the...
Ragnarok - XIX
Journey to the underworld is a common characteristic of the epic as a poetic form. odysseus and aneas both make one, gilgamesh makes one, the first book of divine comedy is one, and paradise lost starts with one.
Ragnarok - XVIII
As does a man who from an areoplane Leaps for heart-stopping sport hang for the half, Half-second that his heart is stopped, and sees The world spread out below, amid the clouds, And wheeling slowly, like the stars at night, Until gravity finds...
Ragnarok - XVII
Said Varr, voice hollow like a man bereaved And echoing around the council hall, "Never before have I turned tail. What has Become of Last to Flee? If such as I, By death made undying, by corruption Made incorruptible in who we are, Already have...
Ragnarok - XVI
"Mean you to slay this?" Varr said slowly, as The Sulfur Carrier stretched, its knees below The pit its impact had carved out, "Do you Yet say that this your sword shall cut down this Colossus, berserker?" Klau swallowed, and, With his eyes to...
Ragnarok - XV
As haloed patriarchs, hewn from the stone Atop the arches, mid the cornices Where gargoyles grimace at the bitter taste Of dusty rainwater, watch heretics Self-excommunicated all depart, Stoic, still militant, and stony-faced Shed not one tear,...
Ragnarok - XIV
Varr broke the silence first. "You saw him, then. Our lord is yet alive. I had not dared To think the question, lest I should answer. But the Old Man lives yet. So lives our strength." Shane muttered quietly "Not he alone." And when they looked at...
Ragnarok - XIII
Where once the yearly snowmelt flood had carved A narrow serpentine defile, that poured Itself onto the plains until there was No more snow left to melt, now were there walls And roof, rough hewn and roughly thrown into A rude, windowless,...
Ragnarok - XII
Somewhere it was sunset. On the hills The last refractions of the scarlet sun Licked at the upper edges, like a flame About to catch on paper, but below All now was more than darkness, as the bars Crossed cruciform around a lantern wick Grow...
Ragnarok - XI
Somewhere it was after midnight, when The long hours of the morning stretch ahead Sideways, so that they wider grow and can Contain more night and not take up more time. Somewhere a boxer wandered in his dreams Down streets abandoned, over bridges...
Ragnarok - X
Like a gazebo in an empty park-- Where silent is the playground, where the paths No longer feel the tread of shoes or hear The jangle of the collar and the leash, Where wild and weedy tend the lawns, and trees Grow forestlike and rough--where once...