In the beginning

Dylan Thomas

1914 to 1953

Poem Image
Track 1

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And from the cloudy bases of the breath
Before the veins were shaking in their sieve,
Abstracted all the letters of the void;
The word flowed up, translating to the heart
Three-syllabled and starry as the smile;
Life rose and spouted from the rolling seas,
Heaven and hell mixed as they spun.
In the beginning was the three-pointed star,
Burst in the roots, pumped from the earth and rock
Touched the first cloud and left a sign.
That from the solid bases of the light
That set alight the weathers from a spark,
The secret oils that drive the grass.
One bough of bone across the rooting air,
First characters of birth and death.
Before the pitch was forking to a sun;
And after came the imprints on the water,
And, burning ciphers on the round of space,
One smile of light across the empty face;
The substance forked that marrowed the first sun;
In the beginning was the mounting fire
In the beginning was the secret brain.
In the beginning was the pale signature,
Blood shot and scattered to the winds of light
In the beginning was the word, the word
The blood that touched the crosstree and the grail
The brain was celled and soldered in the thought
A three-eyed, red-eyed spark, blunt as a flower;
The ribbed original of love.
Stamp of the minted face upon the moon;

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