Suddenly

Suddenly, when spirit
Coils like a serpent of the ancient seas
And life like a lyric
Leaps in the blood blue age cannot freeze;
Suddenly, when summer
Burns in my veins like a spoonful of sun
O voice, grown dumber
Than the silent woods, is your shouting done?
Defying the sorrow
Black putrefaction of the soul’s decay
Blue birds of the morrow
Jabber, gibber, intonate you lifelong lay.
Suddenly, when giving
Thought to the dead, where the dead have a name
The limbs of the living
Draw to the grave as moths to a flame
Cold as a glimmer
Born of the fires that forever burn:
O eyes grown dimmer
Than the sinking sun, is your sighting done?