Thunder Beyond Popocatépetl

By Malcolm Lowry

Black thunderclouds mass up against the wind,
High-piled beyond Popocatépetl;
So with force, against whose swollen metal
The wind of reason has the heart pinned
Till overbulged by madness, splitting mind . . .
Or, drifting without reason, see mind’s petal
Torn from a good tree, but where shall it settle
But in the last darkness and at the end?
Who take no arms as the good wind’s defender
You psalmists of despair, of man’s approved lease,
Reason remains although your mind forsakes
It; and white birds higher fly against the thunder
Than ever flew yours, where Chekhov said was peace,
When the heart changes and the thunder breaks.

“Thunder Beyond Popocatépetl,” by Malcolm Lowry, Vol. 47, No. 3, Summer 1962.

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