Submissions by Sartoris

We're forever encircled, since the heart
Always divides against itself.      
    
Then, we become dumbstruck gulls,  
And everything scatters, before our eyes—  
As when an opponent      
    
Upsets the chessboard, and neither of us      
Can remember where the pieces go.    
    
Rather than starting over, somehow,    
We continue. Discovering a music, which,      
Separate from its melody,      
    
Guides the arrangement, through offbeats,    
To refresh old standards with discord.

I was cast out, and set adrift,
By prevailing winds, without those charts
Considered suitable for navigation.

Accompanied by a gentle rocking
Of the forgiving current, I never longed for  
Merely continental limitation,

When such resource was satisfied  
By ecstasies, wrought in contest between  
Myself and daylight's final ember.

If time cannot be traced with compasses
Or measured beneath a looking-glass,
Then I exist outside this present, with shadows
Beckoning, further than suburban lanes.

Whenever Dutch peasants gathered, over
Bacon, potatoes, and limitless black coffee—
Among ink-stained hands on Paternoster Row,
Who misspell Shakespeare's words,

So I lived, through destinations, wayward
And beyond sense, as a blind librarian's verse—
Which cannot be definitely saved, but still
I preserve this blossom, between two leaves.

I know not what tomorrow will bring,'
Such dreams are now beyond my control.
They only respond to unwise sleep,
Appearing like Summer rain, at midnight.

O but when revealed, they never cease—
As welcomed prophecies, a madness which
Somebody has granted us, whenever
An evening caresses our window-panes.