After Reading Children of Albion (1969)

I
Time-expired accusation, a tendresse
of news-hounds, a cave of judges, a judgment
confounded, a covenant of fuddled sleep.
Children of Albion now old men and women
compromised by the deeds they signed in Eden
forsaking dearth.

2
Kemp’s Jig was hard labor – London to Norwich.
I saw a man enact it for an hour
his stage about the space of a kitchenette.
Theatrical darkness, sound only, a hish,
a hisp, tissue of little bells. Then—bingo! —
lights! and a gold Albion uprearing,
electric with a static declamation,
a stance-prancer to his motionless fingers’ ends.

3
The dancers, faces oblivious & grave, –
testing testing
the dancers face oblivion and the grave.