Urizen Poem by Frank Avon

Why
would he have returned
again and again,
even at the end,
to this figure,
who stood for
what he most abhorred?

abstract rationalism,
moral legalism,
tyranny,
power and domination,
the System?
God, Priest & King?
Why?

this Ancient of Days,
heroic, fallen,
wielding his compass?
Why, why?

Could it -
could it have been
an inner self who shadowed
his Poetic Genius?

Could it have been
his own pride & ambition,
the vainglory & the fear,
his selfishness & irritability,
his resentment of his friends,
his rage,
his need to be admired,
his calculated schemes,
his need to systematize,
to create his own world?

In the new Jerusalem
'on England's mountains green'
could even he be redeemed?
shaking off his 'aged mantles, '
rising once again
'in naked majesty /
In radiant Youth, '

a Glad New Day?