English Poems

What can be compared to
the living eye?
Its East
is flowering
honeysuckle
and its North
dogwood bushes.

After the jostling on canal streets
and the orchids blowing in the window
I work in cut glass and majolica
and hear the plectrum of the angels.

My thoughts keep dwelling on the littoral
where china clocks tick in the cold shells
and the weeds slide in the equinox.

The night is cold for love,
a chamber for the chorus
and the antistrophe of the sealight.

The ants came
to investigate
the dead
bull snake,
nibbled
at the viscera
and hurried off
with full mouths
waving wild
antenae.

Moths alighted,
beetles swarmed,
flies buzzed
in the stomach.

1

Under this Luxemburg of heaven,
upright capstan,
small eagles....
is the port of N. Y.....

gilders, stampers, pen makers, goldbeaters,

Eastern Sea, 100 fathoms,
green sand, pebbles,
broken shells.

Off Suno Saki, 60 fathoms,
gray sand, pebbles,
bubbles rising.

Plasma-bearer
and slow-
motion benthos!

The fishery vessel Ion
drops anchor here
collecting
plankton smears and fauna.

The old man
drew the line
for his son,
the executive:
“I don’ t want you spending money on me!
(not as long as there are fathers)”,
the line ageless
as the independence of time.
Musters tears
and overflows
the inner ear,
yet does not matter.
It can not cure frailty.

a man and his dog

what fun
chasing twigs
into the water!

young girls bicycle by
in pairs and plaid shorts

a wind so soft
one’ s whole
back tingles
with cilia

a gentle lake

I
— how we’ re carpet-making
by the river
a long dream to unroll
and somehow time to pole
a boat

I designed a carpet today —
dogtooth violets
and spoke to a full hall
now that the gall
of our society’ s

corruption stains throughout
Dear Janey I am tossed
by many things
If the change would bring
better art

but if it would not?
O to be home to sail the flood
I’ m possessed
and do possess
Employer

Nothing worth noting
except an Andromeda
with quadrangular shoots —
the boots
of the people

wet inside: they must swim
to church thru the floods
or be taxed — the blossoms
from the bosoms
of the leaves

*

Fog-thick morning —
I see only
where I now walk. I carry
my clarity
with me.

*

Hear
where her snow-grave is
the You
ah you
of mourning doves

I
My wife is ill!
And I sit
waiting
for a quorum

II
Fast ride
his horse collapsed
Now he saddled walked

Borrowed a farmer’ s
unbroken colt
To Richmond

Richmond How stop —
Arnold’ s redcoats
there

III
Elk Hill destroyed —
Cornwallis
carried off 30 slaves

Jefferson:
Were it to give them freedom
he’ d have done right

IV
Latin and Greek
my tools
to understand
humanity