Nevermore Poem by Paul Abucean

To Wilma Jonker

'What is the price of Experience?
Do men buy it for a song?
Or Wisdom for a dance in the street? '

William Blake




She came from afar, but her coming was straight,
Flew over the mountains and deserts of fate;
Her bliss would be endless - she fained to presume,
When swallows were nesting and spring was abloom.

He came from afar, on the crookedest road,
His name was not known, nor his earthly abode;
He hungered for Beauty and Wisdom ignored,
On islands of Dream he was master and lord.

Her charm was enthralling, her magic complete;
An angel from heaven could not be more sweet;
Her eyes of brown sugar looked tasty and tame;
All candy and honey her language became.

She fashioned herself as a fisher of men;
(The time to go fishing was certainly then!)
She sang him her song and she danced him insane,
Then tightened her net round his innocent brain.

She left when his assets were thoroughly spent;
Went back to the land of the Dollar and Cent.
She thought to herself with a sigh of relief:
''Tis you, Iron Curtain, that spares me the grief!

How happy the Free World! How true what they say!
Get something for nothing - then slither away! '
He felt like the bones left to dry on a dish;
A fisher cares not for the souls of his fish.

He roamed in the desert for thirty-odd years;
He shed his illusions, he banished his fears;
He learned to step back all those answers to find;
He learned how to dive in the depths of his mind;

He learned that his heart had the mettle to bear it,
That Wisdom began where the Pain was enough -
The only true gain was the gain of the Spirit;
The only true power, the Power of Love.

And when, at long last, he emerged from the fog,
They drove him away like a pestilent dog;
They slammed shut the door and were proud to proclaim:
'Get something for nothing is History's aim;

We've done it for longer than we can think of,
And called it 'Thanksgiving' and 'Brotherly Love'.
And oh, by the way, can you figure, perchance,
What price for the song? and how much for the dance? '

They cut off his head, and it rolled in the snow...