“Je te veux”
You are a fallow pasture
Swaying in a summer breeze.
You are an ivory-plaited surf
Where pelicans trace the seas.
You are a winter sky
With cordoned stars so bright
The moon must pause to marvel
In its nocturnal flight.
You are a lake and cove
Whose waters are never still.
You are those piney woodlands
You wander at your will.
You are a festive banquet,
A gate that never closes.
You are a font of laughter
Wherein all joy reposes.
You are my heart’s desire,
A petal in a nook;
A melody of lovely tone;
A lily by a brook.
You are a crown of honor
Imperishable and true.
You are everything I ever sought,
A paradise in you.
(From Farewell . . . and if Forever)
Can a poem about
A hummingbird
Be longer than
Than a single word?
From Late Autumn
at Dumbarton Oaks
Dizain XVII
Let us not be too eager to regret
Our regrets; nor be too eager to repel
The sorrows and bereavement of our souls.
That we have had them only shows us that,
However marred our obverse coins may be,
The reverse sides, as hidden as they were,
Were but the tokens of the face of love.
I would regret if I could not regret
The dark shadow that in my heart resides
Where this, my song, my song of joy, abides.
Childermas
That life is but a dream the poets like to say:
An unsubstantial thing, devoid of meaning —
For those who thrive may thus presume to claim.
But how could I have known the difference?
A dream was all I ever had to know —
A mother’s voice I came to recognize;
A tread and glide that rocked and cradled me;
A sacred ark that I could push and press;
A mouth in me that craved to cry aloud
For love, for nourishment, for cool, brisk air,
And light to pry apart my yet unopened eyes.
Then, suddenly, everything went blank.
Sages, poets, poseurs, fools may prattle
All they desire of dreams and nothingness.
My dream was rooted in vital bones and blood
To wake and see a real world’s bloom and bud.
(Both poems are from Farewell . . . and if Forever)