Night Piece

Rise, cleanly trust, divided star, And spend that delicate fraud upon the night— A lover’s instance moving mindful air To make its peace in dedicated light Whose look is charnel. Lusters, intent and blind, Give darkness downward with a glow like sheaves— A gleaner’s pittance withered in the bind That keeps the summer godhead of the leaves And bends tremendous evening under it, Doubles its theft within a lonely course Till eye and eye repeat the counterfeit And shape the replenishing mercy at its source. All else were ravage: a demon-gaze of terror: The emblem blackened in the living head, The eye, the image, and the image-bearer Struck to an awe with smiling on the dead. Therefore that bounty which, however false, Tenders survival, and is purely given, And lends the viewless prisms at its pulse To make an easy legendry in heaven. Restore that grace! Indeed, the look is grace That deals this desert providence in air And lifts a deathshead, burning, into place To serve a lover’s faith. Rise, carrion star.