There Go The Gods

I. Twilight

My dreams are black and without faith

For I heard from the bird of mourning

There is no such thing as love

And the madman emerged from the burning wood

And cried out with a crazy shout

That all the gods are dead

*            *                        *                                    *

A cloud has gathered and overwhelmed

This once golden, glistening land

The roses withered, the sparrows silent

The oranges spoiling on the trees

A depthless shadow fell across the earth

Arrived from a distant summer

Telling of glories that never were

And worlds that shall never be

The cities lie half-abandoned

The other half drowned in woe

The music turned to senseless noise

The lights now colorless and strange

The call came on the video tube:

Four o’clock—

Time for biscuits, tea, and Ragnarök

Did you hear what the piper said?

The floodgates have been opened

And all the gods are dead

*

            *

                        *

                                    *

                                                *

                        Of all the words that were ever heard

We could not think of one

            More somber and more desolate

Than the word that spelled the end

The sky fevered with a fearsome glow

                        In sulfurous fury shining

            The leaves swirled in the sordid air

If we did not know it then we know it now:

            Everything is lost

Here come the Empty Ones

Their eyes never seeing

Here come the Hopeless Ones

Ahead the light is fleeing

Burn, burn, springtime yearning

Bright summer you shall never see

Fall, fall, black sky burning

Bleak winter comes for thee

In this burning Ragnarök

Categories fall, classifications fail

And the universe goes dark

What if the gods won’t save us?

They are falling, fallen, laid to rest

What if the music cannot be heard

Above the dismal din?

Listen to what the madman says—

You blind, deaf, dumb heathen swarms

His words flew serenely above your head—

Your verdant wood is burning

And all the gods are dead

* *    *  * * *  *    * *

We sat for tea, and talked of time

As though it still existed

We spoke of space as if it yet

Surrounded us above

“Men should fear the gods,” we said,

“Or face the abysmal waters.”
“But who can see the sky,” said we,

“And still believe in light?”

Did you hear the mournful cosmonaut

As he sailed the silent stars above?

“My instruments do not detect—

Proving what we did long suspect—

There is no such thing as love.”

Is this, then, why the tumult and collapse?

Why the fiery flaming fall?

The props that held the world all up

Have buckled beneath the emptiness

All the channels have gone silent

And all the stations black

And to escape the void’s cold approach

We turned to hopeless futile dreams

But the heavens will not save us now

Because we will not see them

And still we will not hear the voices

Of the high and ringing stars

All we see is the nothingness

The end of all the stories

The books are ravished by our blindness

We have lost our fear of gods

*            *            *            *            *            *            *

We looked at where the poet stood

As tears burned his forlorn cheeks

He gazed at us with bleary grimness

And proclaimed his newfound faith:

“Of course I believe in dreams,” he said,

“Only yesterday I saw many of them

Vanish before my eyes.”

We asked him to sing a song to us

To offer us a leaf of hope

But he said all the trees had fallen

Consumed by raging sorrow

“They told you Helen of Troy was just a myth

Invented by mad sad bad poets

Little did they know

“I saw her once in long lost dreams

The face that enflamed the furious fires

And that made the broken stars collapse

And despair to earth in woe

“And I was visited by the darkling angel

Who led me to the mountain peak

And showed me a dazzling dream

“I beheld a vision of wondrous love

Of love’s bright beauty and bliss

And the angel said, ‘This, Poet, is not for thee—

Instead thy liver is the eagle’s meat

Thy torment is this blessèd dream

This happy heaven thou shalt never reach

Though it once lay within your grasp.

It is all there, Poet, that thou might see—

The homeland thou shalt never enter—

Stand and look and weep—

The Promised Land not meant for thee.’

“The angel beheld my tortured gaze

His eyes burned with a black and awful light

He showed me the very face of Beauty

Then slew me with a song.”

* *  ***  * *

The winds moaned across the city

The buildings ruined and decrepit

A hollow howling storm approached

Bearing a deluge of endless grief

I walked a neighborless neighborhood

And saw a scrap scurry across the street

I watched as it grabbed hold my failing feet

And upon it read the letters:

RENOUNCE DESPAIR

—I knew not what it meant

For all words had failed me

All philosophies rendered useless

History never happened

And science never knew

The heavens had been emptied

All the stars turned black

Then with a long deafening roar

The sky tumbled to the earth

And with a dim and dismal crash

The entire universe collapsed

All we were left with was this

Black, bleak, bitter knowledge:

There is no such thing as love

And all the gods are dead

I returned to my apartment

Well past time for tea

But that did not matter

Happiness was not meant for me

I sipped but did not savor

No flavor could I taste

The light had been lost

The world gone to waste

II. Dawn

A child played in the street

Apparently unaware of the tragic news

That the world was no more

I had endured an endless night

Without rest or dreams

The sky lay dark upon the earth

I had no drink of water

I heard a sweet and splendid voice

From the vanished street below

It was the blessèd child singing:

We’ve had tea and teacakes

We’ll have them all again

We’ve had love and roses

We’ll have them all again

The stars still shine above

Where you cannot see them

The dawn is for you, my friend

The dawn is for you

I listened but could make no sense

Of this strange and childish verse

It did not agree with sight or reason

I hovered in my chambers like a ghost

Not at home but only occupying space

Space that remained, despite my presence,

Empty, horribly cold

*

The rumble late awoke me—

There was thunder on the earth

The horizon glowed with pallid light

The hint of a waking morrow

I reached out to the reachless vault

Of the lost and lightless heavens

I gazed upon the sky with depthless ache

Searching for a star

Then I heard it, faint at first

A song of distant light

Sounding beyond the universe

A music not heard since the youth of the world

Do the gods even now speak—

Their voices thundering across the sky?

*                        *            *            *            *                        *

The voices rose low and somber

Across the sullen desolation

We could hear them singing:

Arcturus ,,,,,,, have you lost

            The uncanny way to paradise

We see the unseen endless light

We hear the unknown musics yet

The ancient darlings .... have .... not abandoned you

            It is only Time

,,, the vernal bird of unseen light ,,,

* *** * even now abides * *** *

our names are written among the stars

trembling, trembling,                                                                        Unseen Light!

Our song rises to the highest height!

All dreams are not lost

                        ,,,,,,, our song for the unknown glories ,,,,,,,

Trembling toward the unseen light!

*******have you heard the realms of bliss

All dreams are not lost

                        ,,,,,,, our light among the million stars ,,,,,,,

Glorious! Glorious!

All the darling ones here rejoice

                                    ....we know dreams are true

A light—not seen but seen—

Uttered weird majestic words

Speaking in a soundless tongue:

“O mortal, know this:

You may not look long on impossible things

And live.

“You listened to the Angel of Despair

He told you warped and woolly truths

Which amount to lurid lies.

“The child who sings knows more

About the birth of the dreaming stars

And the fate of bitter teardrops.

“Wake, mortal, and you shall see

The dawn is not afar—

The stars begin to sing.”

*            *                        *                                    *

We lit upon a field

Of soft and dewy clover

A child played in the sparkling grass

And the child I saw was me

The angel said, “His dreams now belong to you

His life is yours to keep

Do not make him tremble

Do not make him weep.”

The sun rays played upon his face

His eyes reflected light

The dawn had come to greet him

To him the gods had given

The magic gifts of life

I beheld the child, pure and warm

With life and light and love

I only wished to be him

To face with faith and hold with hope

All the golden mornings

And all the tragic tomorrows

Of his course upon the earth

Around him roses bloomed

And sparrows sang

And oranges sweetly ripened

The sun rose and showed his face

As he looked upon the sky

And the angel said:

“Renounce despair, sweet child,

Renounce despair—

It was not meant for thee.”

For Elizabeth Partington

Steven Holland

August 28, 2013