Poem of the Day: "Burial" by Robert McAlmon

"Burial" by Robert McAlmon is the Songs of Eretz Poem of the Day and the Poets.org's Poem-A-Day offering for May 17, 2014.  The poem first appeared in the poet's collection, Explorations, in 1921.  It is in the public domain and therefore legally reprinted here.

Burial

Robert McAlmon

Geometry is a perfect religion,

Axiom after axiom:

One proves a way into infinity

And logic makes obeisance at command.

Outside of the triangle, cubes, and polystructures

There is restless pummeling, pounding and taunting.

The end is diffused into channels

Every step into eternity—and steps are endless.

Kansas native Robert McAlmon (1896 - 1956) (pictured) was a poet, author, memoirist, and publisher.  During his time as an expatriate in France in the 1920s, he founded a publishing company that published work from such famous writers as Ernest Hemingway, William Carlos Williams, and Gertrude Stein.  Reference to this and additional biographical information may be found here:  http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/659718/Robert-McAlmon.

Exhumation
Steven Wittenberg Gordon, MD

Ah, if only religion could be
As perfect as geometry,
So easily proven point by point,
No need for a godhead to anoint.

One simply accepts the axioms
Of point and line and plane and sums.
But doesn't that take faith?  'Twould seem
Geometry is too a dream.