In the footsteps of the walking air in  General   

In the footsteps of the walking air
Sky's prophetic chickens weave their cloth of awe
And hillsides lift green wings in somber journeying.

Night in his soft haste bumps on the shoulders of the abyss
And a single drop of dark blood covers the earth.

Now is the China of the spirit at walking
In my reaches.
A sable organ sounds in my gathered will
And love's inscrutable skeleton sings.

My seeing moves under a vegetable shroud
And dead forests stand where once Mary stood.

Sullen stone dogs wait in the groves of water ...
Though the wanderer drown, his welfare is as a fire
That burns at the bottom of the sea, warming
Unknown roads for sleep to walk upon.

By Kenneth Patchen

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Other poems by Kenneth Patchen:

• As We Are So Wonderfully Done With Each Other
• Creation
• Fall of the Evening Star
• In the footsteps of the walking air
• Let Us Have Madness
• Pastoral
• Saturday Night in the Parthenon
• The Naked Land
• The Orange Bears
• The Slums
• The Temple
• There Are Not Many Kingdoms Left
• We Go Out Together In the Staring Town
• When We Were Here Together