Pansies (Lawrence)/The Risen Lord

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THE RISEN LORD
The risen lord, the risen lordhas risen in the flesh,and treads the earth to feel the soilthough his feet are still nesh.
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The risen lord, the risen lordhas opened his eyes afresh,and sees strange looks on the faces of menall held in leash.
And he says: I never have seen them before,these people of flesh;these are no spirits caught and sorein the physical mesh.
They are substance itself, that flows in thickflame of flesh forever travellinglike the flame of a candle, slow and quickfluttering and softly unravelling.
It moves, it ripples, and all the timeit changes, and with it changemoods, thoughts, desires, and deeds that chimewith the rippling fleshly change.
I never saw them, how they must softenthemselves with oil, and lardtheir guts with a certain fat, and oftenlaugh, and laugh hard.
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If they didn't, if they did not softenthemselves with oil, and lardtheir guts with a certain fat, and oftenlaugh, and laugh hard
they would not be men, and they must be men,they are their own flesh.—I layin the tomb and was not; I have risen againto look the other way.
Lo! I am flesh, and the blood that racesis me in the narrows of my wrists.Lo, I see fear in the twisted facesof men, they clench fear in their fists!
Lo! on the other side the graveI have conquered the fear of death,but the fear of life is still here; I am braveyet I fear my own breath.
Now I must conquer the fear of life,the knock of the blood in my wrists,the breath that rushes through my nose, the strifeof desires in the loins' dark twists.
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What do you want, wild loins? and whatdo you want, warm heart? and whatwide eyes and wondering spirit?—notdeath, no not death for your lot!
They ask, and they must be answered; theyare, and they shall be, to the end.Lo! there is woman, and her way is a strange way,I must follow also her trend.
I died, and death is neuter; it speaks not, it givesNo answer; man rises againwith mouth and loins and needs, he livesagain man among men.
So it is, so it will be, for ever and ever.And still the great needs of menwill clamour forth from the flesh, and nevercan denial deny them again.

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