Time, As a Symptom

Time passed hard
And the task was the hardest thing she'd ever do
But she forgot
The moment she saw you

So it would seem to be true:
When cruel birth debases, we forget
When cruel death debases
We believe it erases all the rest
That precedes

But stand brave, life-liver
Bleeding out your days
In the river of time
Stand brave:
Time moves both ways

In the nullifying, defeating, negating, repeating
Joy of life;
The nullifying, defeating, negating, repeating
Joy of life

The moment of your greatest joy sustains:
Not axe nor hammer
Tumor, tremor
Can take it away, and it remains
It remains

And it pains me to say, I was wrong
Love is not a symptom of time
Time is just a symptom of love

(And the nullifying, defeating, negating, repeating
Joy of life;
The nullifying, defeating, negating, repeating
Joy of life)

Hardly seen, hardly felt
Deep down where your fight is waiting
Down 'till the light in your eyes is fading:
Joy of life
Where I know that you can yield, when it comes down to it
Bow like the field when the combs through it:
Joy of life
And every little gust that chances through
Will dance in the dust of me and you
With joy-of-life
And in our perfect secret-keeping:
One ear of corn
In silent, reaping
Joy of life

Joy! Again, around–a pause, a sound a song:
A way a lone a last a loved a long
A cave, a grave, a day: Arise, ascend
(Areion, rharian, go free and graze. Amen.)

A shore, a tide, unmoored a sight, abroad:
A dawn, unmarked, undone, undarked (a God)
No time. No flock. No chime, no clock. No end
White star, white ship–nightjar, transmit: Transcend!

White star, white ship–nightjar, transmit: Transcend!
White star, white ship–nightjar, transmit: Transcend!
White star, white ship–nightjar, transmit: Trans