The Cloud of Unknowing Current 93

And then when I die
I feel I shall say
I have not understood
I have not understood any of this
My eyes are still coal dark
I have not understood
Around and in my eyes the tiny flecks
Of swirling crippled confused lights
And to my heart I will whisper
Softly quietly
"There is no death there is no death"
(And goodbye to you all)

Under the gorgon grinned arches
Of London's great vaults
I have not understood
Under the sun-puckered roofs of Kathmandu
I have not understood
Along the soul-stoned streets
Of Lower
And of Higher Germanie
I have not understood
Leipzig: black-eyed pain and loss
She I have not understood
In Clare near I
The empty lakes are open in the distance
And too close is the famine retching road
All these are ghosts
There I have not understood
(In the Heart of the Wood
Oh there have I understood)
I rested at the temple of Great Black Time - Her
And did not understand
Though animal bled flesh marbled rivers ran in Her honour
His buckled body in blood
Returns to the pre-birth poise
Spreadeagled like starfish -
There in His eyes:
Incomprehension mute pain disbelief what
Blood there meant sorrow trickles there
This I could not understand
I bend the pages of yet another book
And in its lines Great Black Lines
I have not understood
Please gram mercy pray for me
And oh goodbye sweetest heart
The wind roars in the nearness
And there in my heart
And all the clouds are spiralling towards us
Descent indeed to the centre of it all
Skipping lightly and lying truly
This we shall understand
I hope...