nUkiEmOLe poetics/ 30 Dec 2019 poems by others #10: Shine, Perishing Republic by Robinson Jeffers

Shine, Perishing Republic

While this America settles in the mould of its vulgarity, heavily thickening

to empire

And protest, only a bubble in the molten mass, pops and sighs out, and the mass hardens,

I sadly smiling remember that the flower fades to make fruit, the fruit rots to make earth.

Out of the mother; and through the spring exultances, ripeness and deca-dence; and home to the mother.

You making haste haste on decay: not blameworthy; life is good, be it stub-bornly long or suddenly

A mortal splendor: meteors are not needed less than mountains:shine, perishing republic.

But for my children, I would have them keep their distance from the thick-ening center; corruption

Never has been compulsory, when the cities lie at the monster’s feet there

are left the mountains.

And boys, be in nothing so moderate as in love of man, a clever servant, insufferable master.

There is the trap that catches noblest spirits, that caught–they say–

God, when he walked on earth.

published in 1925, written by Robinson Jeffers
https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/shine-perishing-republic/

my comment: Robinson beckons us to try to cast-aside Ecology, and show us that cannot be done, as we keep memory assured, only direction moderates