101
When we have become tired of the mind’s shiny new toys
I’ll seek the adult occupation which manhood enjoys:
The winning to the Beloved encircled by fire
In the castle of heart will be our only desire.
The head of the state will be he who uses his voice
For singing love’s praises, not in polemical ploys.
The best business man will be he who can show a loss;
The honored employer, he who submits to a boss.
The wonderful shiny and durable new alloys
We’ll seal in space-bins along with all level of noise.
Abiding in the still center with rose-petalled lips’
Love-talk while the nothingness of nothings to nothing slips,
We’ll play all day with suns and moons for shiny new toys
Born from the bubbles of the wine that a man enjoys.
The occupations or genuine adulthood described here in childlike ways.
The ways of the world, political power, commercial success and technological mastery are dismissed as childish toys.
Humorously the occupation of real grownups is described as a sort of blowing bubbles. But this is the detached mastery of the world of illusion, the disinterested and ecstatic aesthetic contemplation of the wonder of the divine totality.
The rose is a mandala of the beauty of life enfolded around the centre.
‘Rose-petalled lips’ love-talk’ is an example of the seldom used run-on line in Francis’ poetry. It flows with beauty like the talk itself.