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Read more poems by Delmore Schwartz: Delmore Schwartz Poems at Poetry X.

Faithful to your commandments, o consciousness, o

Holy bird of words soaring ever whether to nothingness or
               to inconceivable fulfillment slowly:

And still I follow you, awkward as that dandy of ontology
                and as awkward as his albatross and as

another dandy of ontology before him, another shepherd
                and watchdog of being, the one who

Talked forever of forever as if forever of having been
                and being an ancient mariner,

Hesitant forever as if forever were the albatross 

Hung round his neck by the seven seas of the seven muses,

and with as little conclusion, since being never concludes,

Studying the sibilance and the splashing of the seas and of
                seeing and of being's infinite seas,

Staring at the ever-blue and the far small stars and 
                the faint white endless curtain of the
                twinkling play's endless seasons.

Added: 25 Mar 2002 | Last Read: 21 Mar 2010 11:42 PM | Viewed: 2176 times

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