Poetry
Autumn 1956
Roman Spring
Out of the depths of Rome, out of the Forum Up to Villa Borghese where Apollo Touches Daphne at just the arboreal moment, You feel in spring the marriage of […]
Poetry
Autumn 1956
Of Spinster Ladies and Flowers
Around a rose the elderly ladies spin, Like witches now, and now like powdered lovers, Like ancient mothers, bewhiskered and very wise: Grey-haired Miss Gertrude, with terrifying eyes To match […]
Poetry
Winter 1955
Hermes in California
He has his rivals here. Praxiteles Would like the western lads, mostly the blond Intemperate ones, bare to their dungarees. They cruise the beach all day, then load their fond […]
Poetry
Winter 1955
A Mothers’ Idyll
A gentleman from her past appears. He is not young. Around his presence form the years That she has strung Like picked up beads and hid like tears. Now she […]
Poetry
Winter 1955
The Creative Urge
That boy strutting across the Yard Purposefully, a duck out of water Looking for water, furiously . . . Water of self mirroring self? Or will he take the plunge […]
Poetry
Winter 1955
Letter to the World
Love will seek out peripheries of space Far from the center, far from the heart’s core—Which you held dear like a child’s token, clutched Through reversals. The heart’s ill you […]
Poetry
Summer 1952
The Circle
I used to watch the shuddering rings in a pond Move outward from the centre. The stone I hurled Contained my child's will. The water spread It thin as dreams. These touched […]
Poetry
Summer 1952
The Girl of the Golden West
That's not you. You look at San Francisco Bay As one who looks back east while looking west. The gulls would never cry in your youth. A wren, Only, peeped […]
Poetry
Summer 1952
The Island Queen
I remember straddling my father’s head and shoulders To watch the Island Queen ride the Ohio As though on a slide-rule point, its course so smooth I didn’t suppose anything […]