romantic poems

I.

I raised my arms to heaven in agony
 And cried out wildly, “Frail are women fair!
 Their love is as a breath of sunlit air
Or white cloud floating o'er a summer sea.
What is her passion of soul compared to me,
 Me—for the storm-wreaths nestle in my hair
 And I the inexorable anguish bear
Of one whose love outstrips eternity.

“Her love is measured by the sands of time,—
 But mine is as the mountains or the stars:
 It snaps all manacles, it laughs at bars,

Truly it is a deed presumptuous, very daring,
Thus to devise in song a golden frame, preparing
To set therein thy face:
It is as if God gave the rough stern wind the power
To sing for evermore the soul of some white flower
 And this flower's soul before the world to place.

The task is very large.—Love, give thy singer passion
Pure as the sea and sun, that pure strong words may fashion
A frame wherein to place ,
So that the world may see (and never, having met it

On one side youth and beauty infinite
 And on the other weariness extreme
 Of life and life's long spirit-torturing dream
And of the vain wild search for vain delight.
On one side eyes the sun's own glance made bright
 But on the other eyes through which there gleam
 The eyes of sorrows numberless,—no beam
Of sun being there by day, nor moon by night.

When this is so, could any end but one
 Be reached,—could either flee the certain goal,
This —that the weary night should love the sun;

I

I praised the Lord of love who made the world of roses
For his own heart to seek:
Then gave me one white rose that blossoms and uncloses,—
Thy cheek against my cheek!

II.

I praised the Lord who made the soft night fall around me,—
Made star-hosts wax and flee:
Then, since he needed song, with song's wild passion crowned me,—
And with one star-love,—thee!

III.

I praised the Lord who heard the laughter of his daughters
And of the leaves o' the pine

Yes: through me then there passed the power of life immortal.
A revelation came
Sent straight from heaven's far golden high sun-guarded portal:
 A revelation sweet and winged with flame.

I saw new powers of life within my spirit growing:
New pure undreamed-of things
Flashed on my sight with plumes all bright and eyes all glowing
 And new skies' azure gathered in their wings.

Sweet as the skies of some unknown blue-sea-girt island,—
Fresh as the prospect fair

And is not love enough? To give, and give for ever,—
As God spreads light of day
O'er field and flaming hill and forest green and river
And blue soft-laughing bay!

To have the right to love. O man, is not that ample?
To have the right to wake
The soul in woman's eyes: the soul that weak fools trample;
The heart that proud fools break.

To have the right to give love infinite;—a treasure
That cannot pass or fade.
What Fate can hinder me from loving beyond measure,—

Will there be wooing of thee, as below?
 Must thou be sought for, eagerly pursued,
 Followed through many a wayward woman's mood,
Pierced with love's arrows—sometimes plunged in woe?
Then lifted up more passionate heights to know?
 Is this the story of our love, Gertrude?
 Must even spirit-passion have its food
Of coy reluctance, coldness, fiercer glow?

Oh, kiss me, sweet, and turn aside thy face,
 Thy dear face, laughing—woman art thou yet,
 Though on thine auburn locks the crown be set

My mother is scared of the world.
She left my father after forty years.
She was like, Happy anniversary, goodbye;

I respect that.
The moon tonight is dazzling, is full
of itself but not quite full.

A man should not love the moon, said Milosz.
Not exactly. He translated himself
into saying it. A man should not love translation;

there"s so much I can"t know. An hour ago,
marking time with someone I would like to like,
we passed some trees and there were crickets

Weigh odds. Pray. Pay bills.
Tell truth. Love well. Serve real gods.
Meanwhile, daffodils.

*

In a lightning bolt
of memory,
I see our statue of Buddha
(a wedding gift from Uncle Gene
which always sat
on top of the speaker cabinet.
When a visitor asked,
"So, does Buddha like jazz?"
you said, "I hope so.
He's been getting it up the ass
for a long time."