two Robert Bly poems

The Night Abraham Called to the Stars

Do you remember the night
Abraham first saw
The stars?

He cried to Saturn: "You are my Lord!"
How happy he was!
When he saw the Dawn Star,

He cried, ""You are my Lord!"
How destroyed he was
When he watched them set.

Friends, he is like us:
We take as our Lord the stars that go down.
We are faithful companions to the unfaithful stars.

We are diggers, like badgers; we love to feel
The dirt flying out from behind our back claws.
And no one can convince us that mud is not Beautiful.

It is our badger soul that thinks so.
We are ready to spend the rest of our life
Walking with muddy shoes in the wet fields.

We resemble exiles in the kingdom of the serpent.
We stand in the onion fields looking up at the night.
My heart is a calm potato by day, and a weeping

Abandoned woman by night.
Friend, tell me what to do,
Since I am a man in love with the setting stars.


Moving Inward at Last

The dying bull is bleeding on the mountain!
But inside the mountain, untouched
By the blood,
There are antlers, bits of oak bark,
Fire, herbs are thrown down.

When the smoke touches the roof of the cave,
The green leaves burst into flame,
The air of night changes to dark water,
The mountains alter and become the sea.