In Immemorial Elms
Wouldn't it be funny
If the stars in their black beyond were hung from the ceiling by fishing line
Just painted white cardboard, hollow - but shine
Regardless of the opinions of the earth
And mine are absent regardless.
If you want to hide yourself among them, you may
You may find your way across the creaking floorboards
Of the black beyond, to the vast array
And sit yourself among the countless separatist lords
And in this I could take comfort.
But perhaps I am content
In finding myself in the multitude of their dim vassals
Some natural spirit lacking velvet, bells, and tassels
Wrapped gently by the veiling morning mist
In the fields long below.
In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree
Where Alph, the sacred river ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea