Michael Burch Poet Verse

Orpheus

Orpheus
by Michael R. Burch
 
after William Blake

I.
Many a sun
and many a moon
I walked the earth
and whistled a tune.
 
I did not whistle
as I worked:
the whistle was my work.
I shirked
 
nothing I saw
and made a rhyme
to children at play
and hard time.
 
II.
Among the prisoners
I saw
the leaden manacles
of Law,
 
the heavy ball and chain,
the quirt.
And yet I whistled
at my work.
 
III.
Among the children’s
daisy faces
and in the women’s
frowsy laces,
 
I saw redemption,
and I smiled.
Satanic millers,
unbeguiled,
 
were swayed by neither girl,
nor child,
nor any God of Love.
Yet mild
 
I whistled at my work,
and Song
broke out,
ere long.

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