Palinode Poem by William Daryl Hine

Orient yourself in time
Toward the prepossessing dawn.
Disenchanted by the past,
Turn your back forever on
The decadent and splendid West
And all your yesterdays in flame.

Tomorrow is a promised land
Inevitable as success
Following the era you
Wasted in the wilderness.
All the prophecies are true
And their fulfillment is at hand.

Tomorrow seemed a sinecure
Available by force or guile.
After your years of servitude
Endured beside the dirty Nile,
What were you able to secure
But exile, want and solitude?

Disorient yourself away
From the disappointing East.
Forget the fair, unfortunate
Fake embellishments of day,
Its phoney promises. The last
Disaster has not happened yet.