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Selected
Poems
from
Daily Horoscope
from
The Gods of Winter
from
Interrogations at Noon
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The
Burning Ladder
___________Jacob
never climbed the ladder
burning in his dream. Sleep
pressed him like a stone
in the dust,
___________and when
he should have risen
like a flame to join
that choir, he was sick
of travelling,
___________and closed
his eyes to the Seraphim
ascending, unconscious
of the impossible distances
between their steps,
___________missed
them mount the brilliant
ladder, slowly disappearing
into the scattered light
between the stars,
___________slept
through it all, a stone
upon a stone pillow,
shivering, Gravity
always greater than desire.
from
Daily Horoscope
© 1986 Dana Gioia |
