Poem 509

I think this came from a Hare Krishna illustrated leaflet given out on the street … looking it up I find it’s referencing a passage from the Srimad-Bhagavatam:

Hearing their master’s name chanted with great feeling by the dying Ajamila, the order carriers of Visnu, the Visnudutas, arrived within a second. They appeared just like Lord Visnu Himself. Their eyes were exactly like the petals of a lotus flower; they wore helmets of burnished gold, glimmering silk garments the color of topaz; and their perfectly formed bodies were decorated with garlands of sapphire and milk-white lotuses. They appeared fresh and youthful, and their dazzling effulgence illuminated the darkness of the death chamber. In their hands they held bows, arrows, swords, conchshells, clubs, discs, and lotus flowers. …

… I was entranced by the dazzling imagery and enjoyed expanding on it for my own hallucinogenic vision quest while (as seen in the last line) remaining sceptical of where the inspiration had come from (ie. the mercantile organisation that had thrust it into my hand) …

In Their Hands They Held Bows Arrows Swords Conch Shells Clubs Discs And Lotus Flowers

and they were bright very bright
greased as guns in the yellow dust of skyweight
six fingers to each hand breasts without nipples
coming in electricity before the storm
                      air depending dark
                      and pouched

they were coming from the west in points
of laughter
                      lightning stapling their hair
to the mountains horses galloping
      in concentric circles
magnetism sung everywhere played on strings
of granite like a saw
                                         the high pure voice
of the directions

                                 they came upon me
when I was carving live water from the well
when I was incarnating among the vegetables
when I was the King crying loudly
with open mouth
                                   they said bows arrows swords
conch shells clubs discs
and lotus flowers
                                  very cheap