January 1, 1958
[Let Us Hold the Light of Reason]
“Let us hold the light of reason To these emotional aberrations.” While she who is loved by Hamlet Will gather rosemary, rue, pansies— That’s for thought—and columbine. They should have […]
January 1, 1958
The Old Canal at New Hope, Pa.
It is not just a wish, this craving. It is more as if one were demanding the only thing to which one is truly entitled: that which perhaps one was, […]
January 1, 1958
For Hart
The night is lamped with powerful beauty, and the oaks tremble with strange song. Ancestral seas tide to our windows, and the round government burns at our eyes. Inheriting hands […]
January 1, 1958
Mishap
Smash! the blue fragments scatter like pierced birds around, and for shamed minutes after the clutched unbroken pitcher screams to his startled eyeball. The hand of Ganymede withdraws, protests the […]
January 1, 1958
Dreams
We have, most of us, had some indication of a blissful existence in dreams—they can be called dreams only if every incident which follows its course in a manner that […]
January 1, 1958
Pilgrim
The winter sun sets early, A luminous mist like the glimpse of the seasons’ focus (Hourly, yearly) In meditation, which too, behind the coppice Of isolation, sets in haste, Leaving […]
January 1, 1958
[If Anyone Could Tame a Unicorn]
If anyone could tame a unicorn You could. Some would not Call it taming where each stays wild; Refusal to encroach upon His private flight Some would call failure. You […]
January 1, 1958
Proudflesh
A thousand Edens lost, and autumn In the garden of old men Is fall, is aimless, is a parade of pain, Is Adam old in vain: Who whispers I have […]
January 1, 1958
Point of Change
In the marble depot, out of the wind-aimed weather, The multiple man stands in the trampling hall. Vaguely he looks for the red nightcap of his father And waves goodbye […]
January 1, 1958
The Shattered Air
Behind the shadow waits the old man not unloving. Before the shadow I unlearning, learning, rise and fall again within the turning earth within the sky. Her restless shoulder thrust […]
January 1, 1958
Sang My Name
When the beautiful beast called to me from the willows, sang my name, I wouldn’t believe. My brain tabbed it an old refrain beneath my pillow, dutifully objective, walled and […]
January 1, 1958
Circumnavigation
But think of them and there they are. The mind is fractured like a star, Spread out across a crowded sea Of harbors and ports and faces Split into people […]