Poem by Conrad Potter Aiken

Summer

Absolute zero: the locust sings:
summer’s caught in eternity’s rings:
the rock explodes, the planet dies,
we shovel up our verities.

The razor rasps across the face
and in the glass our fleeting race
lit by infinity’s lightning wink
under the thunder tries to think.

In this frail gourd the granite pours
the timeless howls like all outdoors
the sensuous moment builds a wall
open as wind, no wall at all:

while still obedient to valves and knobs
the vascular jukebox throbs and sobs
expounding hope propounding yearning
proposing love, but never learning

or only learning at zero’s gate
like summer’s locust the final hate
formless ice on a formless plain
that was and is and comes again.

1. It Is Now Two Hours Since I Left You
2. Nocturne of Remembered Spring
3. Red Is the Color of Blood, and I Will Seek It
4. All Lovely Things
5. Blues for Ruby Matrix

Laura Temple Summer ("Fair Nature looks jocund, her features are gay")

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