Orpheus In Soho Poem by Rosemary Tonks

His search is desperate!
And the little night-shops of the Underworld
With their kiosks...they know it,
The little bars as full of dust as a stake cake,
None of these places would exist without Orpheus
And how well they know it.


... when the word goes ahead to the next city,
An underworld is hasitly constructed,
With bitch-clubs, with cellars and packages,
So that he can go on searching, deperately!


As the brim of the life is lit,
And breath pous softly over the earth,
And as Heaven moves ahead to the next city
With deep airs, and with lights and rains,


He plunges into Hades, for his search is desperate!
And there is so little risk...down there,
That is the benefit of searching frenziedly
Among the dust-shops and blind-alleys
...there is so little risk of finding her
In Europe's old blue Kasbah, and he knows it.