Vision Adjustment To Another Wavelength

Oh, the dust and the dust and the dust

The ages of neglect by the

Cover of rust

The stone was alive, he could feel it

Breathing beneath his hands

On the table in the kitchen

By the light from the lamp

Burning high with olive oil

He touched the stone, like ice from the sky

Like ice from the eyes of the hangman

He touched the stone and wondered at it

Caressed the coarse rock and was humbled by it

And he knew not why

Why the others hated the stone from the sky

This gem that felt warm amidst all the cold

The breathing and pulsing of life in the stone

And he put out the lamp and crawled into bed

And dreamt of the stone and a tree

And the tree grew up from the stone

Watered with blood in a watering can

The blood of the pen

The pride of the poet lashed to his misery

And up into heaven, a fathomless tree

Where it bore forth wonderful fruit

The fruit of the stars from the womb of the Earth

And he awoke amidst the shudders and sighs

The tears that drip-drip from a faucet of eyes

And he saw the poem written before him

By the olive oil lamp in the kitchen

Of a seed blown far by the winds of the spaces

To the far-off planet and its secret places

To the home of the anguished and longing

The hope of the hopeless, the name of the nameless