Sunday, April 19, 2015

Roger Zelazny Poetry Month 2015: Day 19

Every inadvertent haiku in Lord of Light. Some are prosaic and some are haunting (I especially like the one about Mara and the one about the seed), and I just think the process that brought them about was very neat. 

They did not focus.
Nowhere in the chamber was
there any movement.

"Whatever its source,
if your power says move, then
move we must. How soon?

Then it came again,
the howl, followed by three bright
flashes and the crash.

He raised it once more
and began the quivering
movement of the waltz.

He twined it about
his fingers and then about
his wrist. He stroked it.

For a moment their
eyes met, but the other did
not waver this time.

We priests have always
felt the two statues to be
well situated.

"He went willingly
to his martyrdom, unknown
to me at the time.

In fact, in a short
while I will instruct you how
to go about it.

The gods will know who
has done this thing, and they will
take steps against us.

Is it because there
is that within you which is
like unto myself?

Emotions oppose
the restrictions his fellow
men lay upon him.

When they reached its end,
they hurled the door wide and stepped
out onto the ledge.

Is that the center?
Open the seed and there is
nothing within it.

It was a nighttime
akin to blindness that had
fallen upon him.

When Mara gestured
there was magic and color
and music and wine.

A mighty cry rose
above the sound of the flames.
"It is Garuda!

It functioned for less
than five minutes, and then turned
itself off again.

Krishna put aside
his pipes when the messenger
was brought to him. "Yes?

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