Short Poems

A cemetery……
And autumn fireflies two or three.

Bindweed whiter e'en than lilies
Who has given you all your snow?
'Twas the lovely Amaryllis
She our whiteness did bestow:
She bequeathed to us in dying
All her hand's surpassing snow;
See her cheeks beside us lying
On the eglantine they glow.

I can recall that I have seen
A play without “What do you mean?”
But never in this or another town
Without the line, “Won't you … sit down?”

Without me divided, fair ladies I ween
At a ball or a concert you'll never be seen
You must do me together or safely I'd swear
Whatever your carriage you'd never get there

I will bow and be simple
I will bow and be free
I will bow and be humble
Yea bow like the willow-tree
I will bow this is the token
I will wear the easy yoke
I will bow and be broken
Yea I'll fall upon the rock.

No more the battle or the chase
The phantom tribes pursue,
But each in its accustomed place
The Autumn hails anew:
And still from solemn councils set
On every hill and plain,
The smoke of many a calumet
Ascends to heaven again.

To the tired traveller in summer's heat,
The thought of airy trees is sweet.
Come, in my straight stretched arms discover
A leafy road, thou weary Lover.

The household at the graves assembled,
White-haired, and leaning on their staves.

The billowy Ocean rolls its wave,
Above the shipwreck'd Sailor's Grave,
Around him ever roars the Deep,
And lulls his wearied form to sleep,
Low in the deep Sea's darkest dell,
He hears no more the tempest swell.

At Koriyama there is a castle
Amidst an expanse of rape-flowers.