To H. E. B.

vulik NOX

APRIL 1942

SEVEN POEMS

TO H. E. B.

August 29, 1941

WEN Eve ate the apple

My woes began,

But I didn't believe then

That I would believe in Original Sin.

When Adam delved

I began to fail,

But I didn't comprehend

The majesty of the Supra Rational.

That Cain and Abel

Should be such brothers

And not love each other

Seemed not in the nature of things.

These were old fables

Of the dimly understood,

When men began to construct

Evil and Good.

Then the great passion of pied air

Flew through the days,

The days used the years,

The years grew to tears-

Logic made the stories go

And Imagination moved the key.

Somewhere Love came in,

Quietly, mysteriously.

The force as odd as any

After all is said

Has more sense in it

Than hounding the dead.

And the bond of the obvious

Blood in its beauty

Controls more, is not moral,

Simply is.

When nothing can be understood,

World-systems crumble,

Love is of the essence,

Poetically speaking.

As in music

The truth is in between the tones,

Neither action nor will

Tell what is going on;

It is something glancing off

Allures always,

The rich sense

Of the all, the impossible, the ineffable.