[stylist] Poem - "Close Encounters" - First Draft

[William L Houts]

Hi All,

Here's  a poem I've been working on for the last couple of days. It's 
been through many edits, and probably has several more to go, though I 
can happily say that I've beaten it at least halfway to the shape I 
imagined for it when I began.  It's point of departure is the scene from 
Steven Spielberg's early movie, "Close Encounters of the Third Kind", a 
story about a lineman and his pursuit of the mysterious UFO's which are 
buzzing the world. I'm hoping the thing is near finished, but JAWS, as 
you might know from your own experience, seems really great for prose, 
but in my opinion chunders through poetry in a way which sometimes 
destroys the sense of a poetic line, especially when you're drawing 
towards the conclusion. Anyway, the piece appears below my signature.


--Bill




---

/Here's that movie's /crucible heart:

Not that saint craft singing

which comes at the end, bringing its captured

crewmen to earth once again,

thirty years after their away taken hence,

but coming home staggered and wise.

I mean that terrible gorgeous scene

in the embattled countryside home

where the starfolk lay their light-siege,

sending scorching love through the windows

and vents: O remember that five note song,

that call from the small black-eyed

seraphs, so trumpet bright and fierce,

setting mother and child at odds,

his toys themselves climbing to life, crying

come,O come, you brother, you nephew, you son

while mother must not, must not lose her Barry

to stark ferocious angels,

who brook no mere mother's rage, their sage enchantment

voiced five tone bright, their scorching light

surging through windows and grills as Barry

is birthed through the dog door, earth to mystery air,

loosed from mother and awakened toys

to sky home, a child's top flying:

he is whole, he is free, he's enthroned.