January 1, 1960
Boy Asleep
Nudge me to sleep: I cross the beds in rows Where nothing grows, and between head and foot I travel with the wind, then stick like soot. And in a […]
January 1, 1960
What the Cocks Knew
They came out with cocks crowing and crows too And looked on the fields of town, finding them Not to their liking and light blinding them Like the dying in […]
July 1, 1954
An Acquittal
Winter will not let go of earth. The lust Of the listless sun finds April difficult, Mildly astonished that frost fights so hard. The black earth still is tough in […]
July 1, 1954
Pakim Pond, New Jersey
I. The water of Pakim Pond is red. From a distance, the sky’s in the pond And the pond’s blue. But scoop some in your hands. The sky blue, the […]
April 1, 1953
Autumnal
The earth, laid bare and plain to sight, Divested of its green For sense prepares accessories To feeling’s graveyard scene, Cold architecture of the skies, Reluctance of the sun. No […]
April 1, 1953
Annihilation of Abstractions
The golliwog transfixes abstract fear. Pure hate is subject to Iago when The actor moves. Caress, embrace, and then A new Symposium need not be near. A candidate may televise. […]
January 1, 1952
Night Constable
1. An old man, shaking the doors. See him Preceded by a dog. Have him not Part of the dark or greened by neon. See the streets stride out from […]
January 1, 1952
The Night Fishing
When Papa threw the stick, Spot slidTo the wateredge, shortened into wrinkles Like his ridged back. String screeled Out into the fog where spookily we waved, Thrown by the huffing […]
July 1, 1949
Quatrina
The mountaineer is working with his Bible And all Kentucky echoes to his shotgun. O mountains where our rivers rise and glisten, Consider you the primitive with buckshot. Forthwith the […]
July 1, 1949
Lovers in a Park
The claw protective flung About her shoulders’ haven, Decrees nor you nor I shall touch His starveling heaven; Her stars low sockets hold, Thin lips her hollow, Pale tongue through […]
July 1, 1949
Funeral
Friend, you were my child My mother also Ages long past: The worm is dead in the shell The spark lit its ruin: Saw my reflection Stretching in crannies of […]
July 1, 1949
The Spring Potomac
Force of the season flashes the bird north, And the fish shearing up cold currents to spawn. At that time fishermen stand on the banks of rivers. Along the Potomac […]