Darkness Rising

From the 4th March 1981 comes this very early poem, a touch of Dylan Thomas creeping in, a Nietzsche reference taken from science fiction writer James Blish, and heavily influenced in style by Robert Browning. 

There's something there about oil and energy resources running out, and more than a degree of dark mysticism. I was probably going through a periodic bout of depression at the time. The poem forms part of a sequence I wrote called "The Age of Thatcher and Beyond", which probably accounts for being depressed.

Darkness Rising 

Softly, my darling, hear the daylight falling

As our light flickers; now the engine stalling

Stops, and at once becomes most still

Until silence so sharp that it might kill;

Then howling frenzy starts its rage

At loss of air-conditioned cage 

Now, my darling, comes the darkness rising

As a dusk of idols crumbles in prising

Open Pandora's box; left alone unseen

Is hope. Alas! That which might have been

Was not to be: the silken web falls lightly

But firm; no space here for the sprightly 

Only pray, my darling, for a wizard's spell

To break the enchantment of our hell,

And call forth hope for fresh tomorrow,

That failing there should be no sorrow

But tears of rage against the dying

Of the light, the darkness softly rising. 

4/03/1981