SAINT JULIAN PRESS
THOMAS SIMMONS
BETHLEHEM
The ten thousandth year came and went
Unremarked: soirées gathered their kind,
Poets wrote, and politicians of dubious note
Plied their ambiguous warfare. Astronomers
Turned to the night sky and their own equations,
Seeking gravitational curios, that long lure
Of extra-terrestrial life. Familiar to the bedlamite,
The parapet remained unassailed, though bombs
Exploded in city centers and trucks plowed into crowds.
Because increasingly life took place on the tablet screen
Or some other virtual space, the handful who noticed
The passing of the date, January 1, 2017, had nothing
To tell anyone, not even one another. It was enough
That they knew. That much had been passed down,
Published from time to time—the most recent
Valentin Tomberg, 1985, twelve years after his death;
Before that, 1939, in the same year Yeats himself died.
How it had always been: the ages transforming themselves
With or against the people, the people later at war
Or peace, betrayed, hoping without hope, alone
At the end. And still it all became as it was to be,
That larger dream of which each night-bound vision
Derives its minor sliver, its demon-children.
The ten thousandth year came and went
Unremarked: soirées gathered their kind,
Poets wrote, and politicians of dubious note
Plied their ambiguous warfare. Astronomers
Turned to the night sky and their own equations,
Seeking gravitational curios, that long lure
Of extra-terrestrial life. Familiar to the bedlamite,
The parapet remained unassailed, though bombs
Exploded in city centers and trucks plowed into crowds.
Because increasingly life took place on the tablet screen
Or some other virtual space, the handful who noticed
The passing of the date, January 1, 2017, had nothing
To tell anyone, not even one another. It was enough
That they knew. That much had been passed down,
Published from time to time—the most recent
Valentin Tomberg, 1985, twelve years after his death;
Before that, 1939, in the same year Yeats himself died.
How it had always been: the ages transforming themselves
With or against the people, the people later at war
Or peace, betrayed, hoping without hope, alone
At the end. And still it all became as it was to be,
That larger dream of which each night-bound vision
Derives its minor sliver, its demon-children.
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POEMS from BRING YOUR NIGHTS WITH YOU
BENEDICTION THESE MARRIAGE UNBETROTHED HOW IT WAS BETHLEHEM STAR LIGHT, STAR BRIGHT |
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BRING YOUR NIGHTS
WITH YOU by Thomas Simmons
Available
Through ~ Ingram Content
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Volume
One * ISBN-13: 978-1-7320542-0-2. • ISBN: 1-7320542-0-7. *. Library of
Congress Control Number: 2018939161
Volume Two * ISBN-13: 978-1-7320542-1-9 * ISBN:
1-7320542-1-5 * Library of Congress Control Number:
2018939161
Saint Julian Press, Inc. * Houston, TX
77008 * Ron Starbuck ~ Publisher-CEO
Phone: 281-734-8721 * Email: ronstarbuck@saintjulianpress.com * Web: www.saintjulianpress.com
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This arrangement does help to sustain the press and allow us to publish more books by more authors.