Venus

Her name is old Hebrew and means
the star of the morning
and you can see that in her eyes;
when her blue stare in love’s embrace prevails
and she was aptly named
for in her light all darkness was banished
Yet now, in the growing gloom —
this slide to despairing madness —
seems irrevocable in the loss of her light
and the unending dusk of loss
deepening shadows without her candle
against the Cimmerian shade
I hold not defiance to this funereal realm
but wait instead in some lost dream
of the rise of her star again
though whence she comes I know not
O’er my tortured brow her light has gone
where once shone bright her radiance
now crepuscular dimness and moon’s lunacy reign
with no guiding torch I am lost in the blackness
of this atramentous sphere
I pray for the star of the morning
I pray to her in my words and thoughts and tears
I pray and entreat in unheard cries
for the return of the incandescence of her gaze
whither I now depart or abdicate
I cannot say; some unknown island or sea
unlit by her star and guidance
no rudder nor compass to advise
yet dreams still come of her blaze
through the desolate umbra – a beacon
of glory and the bittersweet remembrance
of warmth.
Star of morning I entreat thee
Star of morning I pray to thee
Star of morning I beseech thee
Star of morning I implore thee
Star of morning I love thee
Star of morning have mercy on me