[stylist] Poem - "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" - Finalish Draft

[William L Houts]

Hello Friends,

Here's an almost complete revision of a poem I posted here maybe eight 
or nine months ago.  I received a number of comments, almost all of them 
useful and to the point, then set it aside.  Sometimes I do that, just 
let things age for a while so I'm not quite as ego-driven about the 
damned thing.  A good thing, too, because when I looked at this one 
today, I was kind of appalled at how clunky it was, and set out to break 
its crooked bones so I could reset them again with, it is hoped, more 
patience and expertise.  Anyway, here it is; comments welcome as always.


--Bill


---

*Close Encounters of the Third Kind *

/"Encounters"/crucible heart:

Not that truth incarnate ark,

singing, bringing our captured crewmen

to earth again, forty years after abduction,

but coming home wise if staggered

white with untellable answers.

No: it's that terrible, gorgeous scene

in the embattled countryside home

where the starfolk lay their light-siege,

sending scorching demands through the 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 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 cracks as Barry

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

loosed from house and awakened toys

to sky home, a child's top flying,

while thwarted mother shrieks below,

until they land at the tower,

release a boy joyous for secrets,

for mother, for deep aching earth.

Years later he'll tell of singing blue spheres,

of star folk free as light,

and of rooms where time itself dozed,

benign as an uncle.







-- 


"Oh, Sophie!  Whyfore have you eated all de cheeldren?"