AboutEssays2022Ben Okri, KERZE, 2022

It’s out it’s out
When it was lit
Light is out
Just freshly out
Out of time
Out of here
Gone up in smoke
Missed the moment
Missed the
When it’s out it’s out
When it’s gone it’s gone
Who can bring back
The missing light
Turn smoke back
Into fire
Turn back time
And the hour
Make it all light again
Kerze kerze kerze
Against the changing times
First there was light
And it was good
In ritual or in the dark
Something to come home to
Something to see on a hill
In the night
When the sun is gone
And the moon’s not out
But now maybe the gods
Have done it
Or we are the gods
That did it to ourselves
Just did it within
The motions
Of the clock
Where they are no shadows
Just the kerzesmoke
Where once there was flame
Or the absent flame
In the ghostly presence
Flame is concentrated
Smoke wavers and drifts
Sometimes the fire wavers
But throws its light
Into the far corners
All the smoke can do is be
A ghost, a wisp, a regret
Nostalgia, a wish undone,
Sometimes even an arch
Of floating spirits
Where the flames die together
In empty rooms

 

Just thinking of those
Places
Where the shadows
Creep closer
And the darkness
Is given courage
And the spaces that
Had presences
Shrink and retreat
With the formless
Dark advancing
Not only in rooms
But in squares
In hearts
In dreams
In parks at noon
In parliaments
And the stock exchange
In school rooms
Where teachers are not free
In the bedrooms
Where the dark
Comes between
The warm bodies
Turning cold
In the streets
That used to lead
To the hill
But leads now
To the crossroads
Where lamps have gone
Out and the rats
Grow brave
In the undergrowth

 

Can the smoke
Bring back the flame
Does the flame survive
In the twisting form
Without a name
Can that which is out
Be not out
Can the dark
Extinguish itself
By itself?
Can the candle
Light itself?
Can the heart
Feel its own beat
Can the feet
Smell the socks
Are moths
Drawn to candlesmoke
Can the light
Put out
Shine still
From that hill
Or among the flowers
On the windowsill?
Can we return
To the source
Can the source return to us
Can spilt sauce
Be unspilled
Can spooled words
Be unspooled
Can the candlesmoke
Illuminate
The cobwebs
Can the darkness brighten
The walls
Where children
Read in silence
While the clock
Marks the time
In the dark?
Tick tock tick tock
It’s out it’s out
Keep your voice down
Don’t shout
No one can hear you
When it’s out

 

 When the moon looms
And shadows
Advance across
The land
Tick tock tick tock Listen to the clock
Ticking in the silent
Candle
On the mantlepiece
But look,
If you can see, There’s history
Expiring slowly
Slowly dancing
Writhing
Casting elegant
Shapes
In the fading
Dancing
Candlesmoke
But the end
Of things
Can be so beautiful
If anyone can see them

 

That sullen
Wisp
Of charm ...

 

Keep it lit
While the song
Lasts ...

 

Missed the moment
Missed the

 

 Ben Okri – KERZE, 2022