Short Poems

Dandelions blooming in fives and threes,
the larger groups yellow, the smaller white,
just as they did three years ago
when I left along this path.

At morning from the coldness of Mount Brandon,
The sail is blowing half-way to the light;
And islands are so small, a man may carry
Their yellow crop in one cart at low tide.
Sadly in thought, I strayed the mountain grass
To hear the breezes following their young
And by the furrow of a stream, I chanced
To find a woman airing in the sun.

The wealth of gold-abounding Croisos
Is no concern to me;
Ambition offers no temptation;
From envy I am free.
The gods' affairs I do not question;
No monarch would I be,
I am content, where'er I'm sent,
With mediocrity.

Around, around the sun we go:
The moon goes round the earth.
We do not die of death:
We die of vertigo.

This is Anacreon's grave. Here lie
the shreds of his exuberant lust,
but hints of perfume linger by
his gravestone still, as if he must
have chosen for his last retreat
a place perpetually on heat.

I ask your pardon that your pain
Should be so quick your lover's gain.
But when I know your love's distress,
My heart leaps high with happiness.
It sends kind tincture to my lips,
I walk with a new rhythm from the hips.

Would any one the true cause find
How Love came nak't, a Boy, and blind?
'Tis this; listning one day too long,
To th' Syrens in my Mistresse Song,
The extasie of a delight
So much o're-mastring all his might
To that one Sense, made all else thrall,
And so he lost his Clothes, eyes, heart and all.

Winter has strewn its every twig
With frozen ashes,
Yet the bush is afire with scarlet wings,
It glows, it flashes:
Take off your shoes! Take off your shoes!
This ground is holy,
For the great I AM in the red-birds' breasts
Is burning lowly.

The stars are waiting till our hearts are wise;
They glow and throb, all vibrant with the thought
That some day we, beholding with clear eyes
The deep celestial splendour of the skies,
Shall know all beauty out of love was wrought.

I spread a snare electric across the ether streams
To catch the dream enchantment with which the darkness teems;
Then down the ancient silence, like zephyrs through the wheat,
The truant tones come drifting melodious and sweet,
For all the heavens are freighted with inspiration light;
The skies are raining music out of the lyric night.