The Cometary Script

Daisy Aldan 1918 – 2001



He said,     ‘Tracking across space-time in their long-drawn elliptical
 orbits, as many Comets as fish in the sea
  are announcing their approach by a fall, from seven Radiants,
   of meteors, bombarding Earth with heavenly
    debris; myriads visible myriads invisible.’
     Copious meteors came streaking toward me
      like a driving snow-storm, grasped only in the mind’s geography.

      ‘Core magnetized by Sun in their elliptical
     revolutions, the “tails”, when they approach Jupiter, are frontal,
    leading toward a defined but indeterminate
   place beyond: Pursuing their course with cosmic intelligence,
  often, they re-appear every seventy-six years.
 They trail materialized spiritual Sun emanations,
and launch into the Cosmos, supersensible

Beings, disenchanting cosmic colours imprisoned in metal.
 At Michaelmas, from Perseus constellation
  descend the greatest swarms. Then Jove’s electrical storms announce war.
   The Dragon Slayer, Armed for battle, mediator
    between Heaven and Earth, holds sulphur, lunar Phosphor, in balance.’
     Following the stellar signposts, memory sparked,
      names whirled; the veil falls: Perseus-Marduk-Michael, the Sun-Hero,

      armed with wings of Mercury and the Memory-
     Mirror-Shield of Pallas-Athena, vanquishes Lilith, the Ghost Star
    and Ra-Al-Ghul, Demon Star of the Evil Eye;
   slays the serpent-haired Medusa from whose blood mixed with the white sands
  of the beaches and foam from the living waves, springs
 The Winged Horse of Art, Pegasus, between Gods and the Deep Seas;
frees frail Andromeda, fragile Dawn, from Night.

See his cometary threads writing poems in scintillating
 script: “purifying the words of the tribe”;
  drawing forth Earth’s passionate fevers, to cast them beyond
   the planet’s sphere; presaging return of cleansing snow!
    Messenger of the Third Sun, he bears the Pristine Son to Earth,
     evolving    evolving    until his disenchanting, bright
      iron sword transforms both Her and us    to Risen Radiance of Light.

About this poem

Source: Poetry (Poetry)

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Submitted by Drone232 on July 19, 2022

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:31 min read
13

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABBBABB AAXCXXA AXXXCXD BXXXXXE XXXDXEE
Closest metre Iambic heptameter
Characters 2,280
Words 305
Stanzas 5
Stanza Lengths 7, 7, 7, 7, 7

Daisy Aldan

Poet, editor, and translator Daisy Aldan was born in New York City to actor Esther Edelheit Aldan and designer Louis Aldan. As a child actor, Daisy Aldan starred in the CBS radio program Let’s Pretend. She earned a BA at Hunter College and an MA at Brooklyn College and completed doctoral coursework at New York University. more…

All Daisy Aldan poems | Daisy Aldan Books

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