Or like the Jordan somberly
Swirling in tumultuous uncharted tides,
Surface-calm.

Electric currents of life,
Throwing off thoughts like sparks,
Glittering, disappearing,
Making unknown circuits,
Or out of spent particles stirring
Feeble contortions in old faiths
Passing before the new.

Long nights argued away
In meeting halls
Back of interminable stairways--
In Roumanian wine-shops
And little Russian tea-rooms...

Feet echoing through deserted streets
In the soft darkness before dawn...
Brows aching, throbbing, burning--
Life leaping in the shaken flesh
Like flame at an asbestos curtain.

Life--
Pent, overflowing
Stoops and façades,
Jostling, pushing, contriving,
Seething as in a great vat...