Autumn Sketch
          As when with shock in Autumn
          Once appeared
          This sight,
          Felt for the first time,
          Yellow leaves of  lime tree
          Magnificent against the
          Clear blue coldness of the sky,
          This now returned,
          Recall
          My young interpretation,
          My explication of the revelation,
          As Hegel's old peasant
          Mouths his childhood creed
          Now with a deeper understanding.
          As then, before a lifetime of experience,
          Virgin, with existentialist
          Reading matter,
          Interpreting
          Experience by light of what
          Appeared that time as truth,
          My ignorance,
          Absurdism,
          Triumphant, nihilisitic,
          Persists, to reappear
          At best perhaps each year,
          Beneath
          The body of superfluous
          Interpretation
          This transient
          Vision.
          Recall a sight in autumn
          Shock, seen for the first time
          Blueness of the sky
          Yellow leaves of the lime tree
          This again returns
          Youth's  explication of the revelation
          Hegel's pious old German git
          Mouthing his childhood creed
          Then, before a lifetime of Experience,
          Virgin, existentialist
          Reading matter, interpreting
          Experience in light of what
          Appeared as truth
          Defiant,
          My ignorance,
          Confirming all
          Absurdity, nihility,
          Which yet remains, to reappear
          At best perhaps each year,
          Beneath
          The body of superfluous interpretation
          This transient glory
          With undimmed power of exaltation.
           
           
    more poetry
     
     
     
     
     
     
                                    JSM 1998