Contemporary American Poetry
Summer 1982
A Sad Pavan for These Distracted Times
Thomas Tomkins, his elegy for William Lawes, 1649 And now the world you loved turns out of season, The best of trees lies wind-blown. The King is dead. Law and […]
Poetry
Winter 1989
A Song of Dowland’s on the Stereo
I saw my lady weep and sorrow proud To be advanced so In those fair eyes where all affections keep. What ground of sympathy Below the lute’s fretwork, the tenor’s […]
Poetry
Winter 1989
On the Resemblance of Poetry to Prayer
In that it is addressed to no one, Nor to the self, but To the troubled body Of the world, from which it arises Also, a morning mist where light […]
Poetry
Winter 1989
Witness
Because he’d lost all knack or love for words, All patience with gossip and his usual crew, He drove out where he’d once bought half a cord Of maple for […]
Poetry
Winter 1989
Calling
I heard the shuttle’s run and then The heddles rattling as the harness fell, And on her warp the sun’s unspent Irrevocable light picked out The leaf-shape of our shadows, […]