Not One Iota

oh the deep night that already extends over the world

its thick blackness piling up everywhere in the sky

light being killed by the death of the sun frightens me

especially if it’s autumn, when the wounded year collapses

oh how grim it will be to come home at evening and see

sinister shadows swell and make an impassable

wall   oh how hard it will be for us to endure

the immensity of the universe that crushes us

and yet how sweet it is to hear around us people

in the arms of their dreams some falling some going to sleep

the dreams of humanity are grander than the universe

the human dream embraces a world that never dreams

but the sum total of dreams dreamed sine we first dreamed

will never change the universe by one iota

           William Cliff, trans. copyright 2008 Alfred Corn

           Barnwood poetry magazine