Kenneth Patchen God Poems
- 1. As We Are So Wonderfully Done With Each Other
As we are so wonderfully done with each other
We can walk into our separate sleep
On floors of music where the milkwhite cloak of childhood lies
... - 2. Do The Dead Know What Time It Is?
The old guy put down his beer.
Son, he said,
(and a girl came over to the table where we were:
asked us by Jack Christ to buy her a drink.)
... - 3. The Snow Is Deep On The Ground
The snow is deep on the ground.
Always the light falls
Softly down on the hair of my belovèd.
... - 4. Be Music, Night
Be music, night,
That her sleep may go
Where angels have their pale tall choirs
... - 5. The Deer And The Snake
The deer is humble, lovely as God made her
I watch her eyes and think of wonder owned
These strange priests enter the cathedral of woods
... - 6. Irkalla's White Caves
I believe that a young woman
Is standing in a circle of lions
In the other side of the sky.
... - 7. Saturday Night In The Parthenon
Tiny green birds skate over the surface of the room.
A naked girl prepares a basin with steaming water,
And in the corner away from the hearth, the red wheels
Of an up-ended chariot slowly turn.
... - 8. The Temple
To leave the earth was my wish, and no will stayed my rising.
Early, before sun had filled the roads with carts
Conveying folk to weddings and to murders;
Before men left their selves of sleep, to wander
... - 9. Creation
Wherever the dead are there they are and
Nothing more. But you and I can expect
To see angels in the meadowgrass that look
Like cows -
...
