Poetry
December Sonnet At evening jugglers travel through the forest On quaint wagons, small steeds. A golden stash seems locked in clouds. In the dark plain villages are painted. The red wind billows linen black and …
Mortal Limit I saw the hawk ride updraft in the sunset over Wyoming. It rose from coniferous darkness, past gray jags Of mercilessness, past whiteness, into the gloaming Of dream-spectral light above the lazy purity …
Censored Into a crock of gold he’d set some weeds, Behold swart devils in the sunniest weather; He would lump the saint and the courtesan together, Most miserably jangling all the creeds. The prurient multitude …
The Antique Harvesters Tawny are the leaves turned but they still hold, And it is harvest; what shall this land produce? A meager hill of kernels, a runnel of juice; Declension looks from our land, …
Aeneas at Washington I myself saw furious with blood Neoptolemus, at his side the black Atridae, Hecuba and the hundred daughters, Priam Cut down, his filth drenching the holy fires. In that extremity I bore …
The Third Station The First Fall I must recover from this fall. No other Savior can be found. I will redeem the sins of all, So must recover from this fall. I still can hear …
The Problem of Anxiety Fifty years have passed since I started living in those dark towns I was telling you about. Well, not much has changed. I still can’t figure out how to get from …
Emperor Shirikawa Of the six fundamental disciplines, the observance of the commandments is considered the most important; of the ten commandments, the prohibition on the taking of life is the prime one. All living creatures …
Yesterday Down at the Canal You say that everything is very simple and interesting it makes me feel very wistful, like reading a great Russian novel does i am terribly bored sometimes it is like …
Variations on a Theme by William Carlos Williams 1 I chopped down the house that you had been saving to live in next summer. I am sorry, but it was morning, and I had nothing …
October Books litter the bed, leaves the lawn. It lightly rains. Fall has come: unpatterned, in the shedding leaves. The maples ripen. Apples come home crisp in bags. This pear tastes good. It rains lightly …
I Slept, and Dreamed that Life was Beauty I slept, and dreamed that life was Beauty; I woke, and found that life was Duty. Was thy dream then a shadowy lie? Toil on, sad heart, …
Flaxman We deemed the secret lost, the spirit gone, Which spake in Greek simplicty of thought, And in the forms of gods and heroes wrought Eternal beauty from the sculptured stone,— A higher charm than …
Earthly Pomp Oh, earthly pomp is but a dream, And like a meteor’s short-lived gleam; And all the sons of glory soon Will rest beneath the mould’ring stone. And Genius is a star whose light …
Herba Sancta I After long wars when comes release Not olive wands proclaiming peace Can import dearer share Than stems of Herba Santa hazed In autumn’s Indian air. Of moods they breathe that care disarm, …
Prologue poem, addressed to Tullus Cynthia was the first. She caught me with her eyes, a fool who had never before been touched by desires. I really hung my head in shame when Love pressed …