Short Poems

If heart's desire were toward the good and fair,
If tongue were laboring now no evil speech,
You'd talk before me upright as a tree,
With eyes unshamed as starlight.

Come, our Aphrodite, queen of Cyprus!
Come, and in the golden goblets serve us
Wine of nectar, delicately watered
Only with joyance!

Stars, so bright about the moon on Lesbos,
How ye'll hide away your lovely fires,
Soon as at the full she greatly lighteth
Earth with her silver.

A fallen Eagle, pierced along the heart,
Saw his own feathers on the fatal Dart.

MORAL

To our disasters we contribute part.

Like a gargantuan screw, the black cloud carves its way through the miniature landscape. A wheat field uncoils like pencil shavings; crows and shingles scatter like graphite dust. Holsteins, hens, and a swayback mare spiral inside the wind's embrace, then plunge like darts into the orchard. In a seizure, the river flees backward. The falls reverse, swallowing their own silver tongue. Tractors, barns, and loops of macadam tangle in a knot. With a metallic shriek, the mountains contract to clench this new dark density.

My bosom with the beat of wings is troubled as the day is falling;
Within my bosom hungry birds are circling on the wind and calling.

My breast is blinded by the rain and buffeted by weary flying.
My bosom with the beat of wings is troubled, and with bitter crying.

I have cast the world,
and think me as nothing.
Yet I feel cold on snow-falling day,
And happy on flower day.

Over hills and mountains I am calling, calling,
Down the frozen valley unanswered echoes die;
In your far-off city where the winter night is falling,
Will you feel the darkness vibrant with my cry?

Sleep, my child, softly fall asleep, door and gate are bolted; by your cradle Good Fortune stands fanning with white wings .
Sleep, my child, you will understand when you grow older that Good Fortune was shedding tears at your cradle .

Whate'er our joy compelled, men's praise and blame fall hollow;
A voice upon the winds that drown it as they blow:
So fair a vision led, our thought was all to follow;
So strong a passion urged, our will was all to go.