MYSTERIES REMAIN

The mysteries remain,
I keep the same
cycle of seed-time
and of sun and rain;
Demeter in the grass,
I multiply,
renew and bless
Bacchus in the vine;
I hold the law,
I keep the mysteries true,
the first of these
to name the living, dead;
I am the wine and bread.

I keep the law,
I hold the mysteries true,
I am the vine,
the branches, you,
and you.


-- Hilda Doolittle (19??)

Copyright © 1982 by the Estate of Hilda Doolittle. Used with permission of New Directions Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved. No part of this poem may be reproduced in any form without the written consent of the publisher.
Sheltered Garden . . . Helen . . . Heat . . . Garden . . . Leda . . . Let Zeus
Eurydice . . . Fragment 68 . . . Pear Tree . . . Sea Poppies . . . Sea Rose

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