The Crucible
--Daniel Bosch 

After virtue, under the eye of the clock,
Patterns of culture in our time, our bodies,
Ourselves, let us now praise famous men,
Invisible cities, pride and prejudice. 

After Babel, to the land of the cattails,
Tender is the night of grammatology,
The well-wrought urn, silence in the snowy fields,
Paradise lost from here to eternity. 

Other criteria hopscotch on liberty,
On deconstruction, on dreams.
The separate notebooks cry “the beloved country.”
Mimesis travels with Charley, islands in the stream 

Marry me. Far from the madding crowd, the possessed
Bang the drum slowly against interpretation,
Pale fire, men and women, labyrinths, the best
Short stories of 1988, civilization 

And its discontents. Languages of art,
I know why the caged bird sings:
To have and have not a part of speech,
Of time and the river, the order of things.