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CummingsPoems

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Thou aged unreluctant earth who dost |% with quivering continual thighs invite |% the thrilling rain the slender paramour |% to toy with thy extraordinary lust |% (the sinuous rain which rising from thy bed |% steals to his wife the sky and hour by hour |% wholly renews her pale flesh with delight) |% —immortally whence are the high gods fled |% Speak elm eloquent pandar with thy nod |% significant to the ecstatic earth |% in token of his coming whom her soul |% burns to embrace—and didst thou know the god |% from but the imprint of whose cloven feet |% the shrieking dryad sought her leafy goal |% at the mere echo of whose shining mirth |% the furious hearts of mountains ceased to beat |% Wind beautifully who wanderest |% over smooth pages of forgotten joy |% proving the peaceful theorems of the flowers |% —didst e’er depart upon more exquisite quest |% and did thy fortunate fingers sometime dwell |% (within a greener shadow of secret bowers) |% among the curves of that delicious boy |% whose serious grace one goddess loved too well |% Chryselephantine Zeus Olympian |% sceptred colossus of the Pheidian soul |% whose eagle frights creation,in whose palm |% Nike presents the crown sweetest to man |% whose lilied robe the sun’s white hands emboss |% betwixt whose absolute feet anoint with calm |% of intent stars circling the acerb pole |% poises,smiling,the diadumenos |% in whose young chiseled eyes the people saw |% their once again victorious Pantarkes |% (whose grace the prince of artists made him bold |% to imitate between the feet of awe) |% thunderer whose omnipotent brow showers |% its curls of unendured eternal gold |% over the infinite breast in bright degrees |% whose pillow is the graces and the hours |% father of gods and men whose subtle throne |% twain sphinxes bear each with a writhing youth |% caught to her brazen breasts,whose foot-stool tells |% how fought the looser of the warlike zone |% of her that brought forth tall Hippolytus |% lord on whose pedestal the deep expels |% (over Selene’s car closing uncouth) |% of Helios the sweet wheels tremulous— |% are there no kings in Argos,that the song |% is silent,of the steep unspeaking tower |% within whose brightening strictness Danae |% saw the night severed and the glowing throng |% descend, felt on her flesh the amorous strain |% of gradual hands and yielding to that fee |% her eager body’s unimmortal flower |% knew in the darkness a more burning rain |%

Thy fingers make early flowers of |% all things |% thy hair mostly the hours love |% a smoothness which |% sings,saying |% (though love be a day) |% do not fear,we will go amaying |% thy whitest feet crisply are straying |% Always |% thy moist eyes are at kisses playing |% whose strangeness much |% says;singing |% (though love be a day) |% for which girl art thou flowers bringing |% To be thy lips is a sweet thing |% and small |% Death, Thee i call rich beyond wishing |% if this thou catch |% else missing |% (though love be a day |% and life be nothing,it shall not stop kissing) |%

i am going to utter a tree, Nobody |% shall stop me |% but first |% earth ,the reckless oral darkness |% raging with thin impulse |% i will have |% a |% dream |% i |% think it shall be roses and |% spring will bring her |% worms rushing through loam |% (afterward 1'll |% climb |% by tall careful muscles |% into nervous and accurate silence....But _ first |% you) |% press easily |% at first,it will be leaves |% and a little harder |% for roses |% only a little harder |% last we |% on the groaning flame of neat huge |% trudging kiss moistly climbing hideously with |% large |% minute |% hips,O |% .press |% worms rushing slowly through loam |% Chimneys |%

Experiments, 1916-17 |% I |% The awful darkness of the town |% crushes;in rows |% houses every one a different shade of brown |% (unity in variety,I suppose) |% It almost snows |% inside,the silly people are teaing with bread-and-butter sandwiches |% talking of the weather,and who |% married whom |% (the sons of b--s) |% —thin smiles glue |% the pasteboard faces,and prevent |% sawdust from pouring out of this |% chink or that |% The gloom |% is flat |% as a poor pancake is |% flat;“My dear,our church sent |% three thousand bandages only last week |% to those poor soldiers’—Whew |% how they reel |% those sweet people. But |%

’m |% going into the Parthenon |% to lap yaoorti with my eyes shut |% tight. Goodbye |% Cambridge |%

’m going |% in to see Nichol,and devour shishkabob(what |% ’s the time |% Five? I must be moving on |% leaving the houses-all-alike |% thank God)and I guess |%

’ll drop in and get Mike |% to give me a high |%

Il |% A |%

the round of gold |% tells me slenderly |% twinkling |% _ fauns pinkly |% leapingassembled |% to pipe-sob |% and grappling |% cymbals lunge thwart vistas |% buxom |% swaggering satyrs |% from thousand |% coverts smooth dryads |% peek |% eyes |% trail |% with merriment of spiraea |%

Ill |% logeorge |% lo |% wellifitisn’t eddy how’s the boy |% grandhave youheard |% shoot |% you knowjim |% goodscout _— well |% married |% the hellyousay |% whoto |% *member ritagail |% doiremember rita what’sthejoke |% well |% goddam |% don’ttakeit too hard old boy |% sayare you kidding me because ifyouare byhell |% easyall george watchyourstep old fellow |% christ |% that that |% mut |% wee people |% dwelling |% between serene |% day- |% light |% and |% god |% o make room for |% my coming which shall be |% as |% the sky comes |% down into those valleys |% cocks cheer softly |% a cow-bell |% occassional |% invisible |% tamps |% twilight |% cool |% choco |%

the sky |% was can dy |% mi |% nous ed |% i |% ble |% spry pinks |% shy lem |% ons |% greens |% lates |% un der |% tive Ss pout |% ing |% vi |% lets |% Vi |% beyond the stolid iron pond |% soldered with complete silence |% the huge timorous hills |% squat like permanent vegetables |% the judging sun pinches smiling |% here and there some huddling vastness |% claps the fattest finally |% and tags it with his supreme blue |% whereat the just adjacent valley |% rolls proudly his belligerent bosom |% deepens his greens inflates his ochres |% and in the pool doubles his winnings |%

mr. smith |% is reading |% his letter |% by the fire- |% light |% tea-time |% smiles friend smith |% no type bold o’s |% d’s gloat |% droll |%

’s twine |% r’s rove |% haha |% sweet-hearts |% part fellow |% like darl- write |% idream my tryned ma |% thinks |% right thing will be still |% till death |% thine |% blows ring |% strokes nose P |% toasts toes S |%

I |% the Cambridge ladies who live in furnished souls” |% are unbeautiful and have comfortable minds |% (also,with the church’s protestant blessings |% daughters,unscented shapeless spirited) |% they believe in Christ and Longfellow,both dead |% are invariably interested in so many things— |% at the present writing one still finds |% delighted fingers knitting for the is it Poles |% perhaps. While permanent faces coyly bandy |% scandal of Mrs. N and Professor D |% ....the Cambridge ladies do not care,above |% Cambridge if sometimes in its box of |% sky lavender and cornerless,the |% moon rattles like a fragment of angry candy |%

don’t get me wrong oblivion |% I never loved you kiddo |% you that was always sticking around |% spoiling me for everyone else |% telling me how it would make |% you nutty if I didn’t let you |% go the distance |% and I gave you my breasts to feel |% didn’t I |% and my mouth to kiss |% O I was too good to you oblivion old kid _ that’s all |% and when [ might have told you |% to go ahead and croak yourselflike |% you was always threatening you was |% going to do |% I didn’t |% Isaid go on you inter- |% est me |% I let you hang around |% and whimper |% and |%

’ve been getting mine |% Listen |% there’s a fellow I love like I never loved anyone else that’s six |% foot two tall with a face any girl would die to kiss and a skin |% like a little kitten’s |% that’s asked me to go to Murray’s tonight with him and see the cab- |% aret and dance you know |% well |% if he asks me to take another |%

’m going to and if he asks me to take |% another after that |%

’m going to do that and if he puts me into a taxi |% and tells the driver to take her easy and steer for the morning |%

’m |% going to let him and if he starts in right away putting it to me in |% the cab |%

’m not going to whisper |% oblivion |% do you get me |% not that |%

’m tired of automats and Childs’s and handing out ribbon to |% old ladies that ain’t got three teeth and being followed home by pimps |%

and stewed guys and sleeping lonely in a whitewashed room three thou- |% sand below Zero ohno |% I could stand that |% but it’s that ’m O Gawd how tired |% of seeing the white face of you and |% feeling the old hands of you and |% being teased and jollied about you |% and being prayed and implored and |% bribed and threatened |% to give you my beautiful white body |% kiddo |% that’s why |%

wanta |% spendsix |% dollars Kid |% 2 for the room |% and |% four for the girl |% thewoman wasnot |% quite Fourteen till she smiled |% then |% Centuries she |% soft ly |% repeated |% well whadyas ay |% dear |% wan |% taspend |% six |% Dollars |%

maker of many mouths |% earth |% why yet once more pronounce |% for the poor entertainment of |% eternity |% this old impertinence |% of the always unimportant |% poet |% death |% tree capable of spring |% how does consent the genius of thy beauty |% haggard with re- |% hearsal |% unprotestingly to take |% these uninspired lines |% for whom |% unto what god acceptable |% dost thou pronounce |% indifferently |% 0 prompted sky |% mechanical gold |% Reflections, 1918 |% I |% along the justexisting road to Roupy |% little in moonlight |% go silently by men |% (who will be damned if they know why) |% ou va-tu, Than-Time-Older with |% wish-bones legs & the five bidons |% women in your eyes |% death on your shoulder |% c’est madame de la guerre |% with love-slovenly |% mouth |% who has turned his mouth from |% the crisp bright mouths of girls |% the arms of wives are crying |% & crying:you have taken the arms |% which held us roughly and gently |% madame de la Mort,we do not know you |% and we hate you |% whither goest thou |% Might Be Older |% (death on your shoulder |% women in your eyes?) |%

] |% when i am in Boston,i do not speak |% and i sit in the click of ivory balls |% noting flies, which jerk upon the weak |% colour of table-cloths,the electric When |% In Doubt Buy Of(but a roof hugs |% whom) |% as the august evening mauls |% Kneeland,and a waiter cleverly lugs |% indigestible honeycake to men |% ....one perfectly smooth coffee |% tasting of hellas,i drink,or sometimes two |% remarking cries of paklavah meeah |% (Very occasionally three.) |% and i gaze on the cindercoloured little |%

Il |% through the tasteless minute efficient room |% march hexameters of unpleasant |% twilight,a twilight smelling of Vergil |% as me bang(to and from) |% the huggering rags of white Latin flesh |% which her body sometimes isn’t |% (all night,always,a warm incessant gush |% of furious Paris flutters up the hill |% cries somethings laughters loves nothings float |% upward, beautifully,forces crazily rhyme |% Montmartre s’amuselobscure eyes hotly dote |% ...as awkwardly toward me for the millionth time |% sidles the ruddy rubbish of her kiss |% i taste upon her mouth cabs and taxis |% Ill |% my deathly body’s deadly lady |% smoothly-foolish exquisitely,tooled |% (becoming exactly passionate Gladly |% grips with chuckles of supreme sex |% my mute-articulate protrusion) |% Inviting my gorgeous bullet to vex |% the fooling groove intuitive |% And the sharp ripples-of-her-brain bite |% fondly into mine |% as the slow give- |% of-hot-flesh Takes,me;in crazier waves of light |% sweetsmelling |% fragrant |% unspeakable chips |% Hacked |% from the immense sun(whose day is drooled |% on night—)and the abrupt ship-of-her lips |% disintegrates,with a coy!explosion |%

first she like a piece of ill-oiled |% machinery does a few naked tricks |% next into unwhiteness,clumsily |% lustful,plunges—covering the soiled |% pillows with her violent hair |% (eagerly then the huge greedily |% Bed swallows easily our antics |% like smooth deep sweet ooze where |% two guns lie,smile,grunting.) |% “C’est la guerre”i probably suppose |% c’est la guerre busily hunting |% for the valve which will stop this |% as i push aside roughly her nose |% Hearing the large mouth mutter kiss pleece |%

The moon falls thru the autumn Behind prisons she grins |% where people by huge whistles scooped from sleep land breathless |% on their two feet, and look at her between bars. She stands |% greenly over the flat pasteboard hill with a little pink road |% like a stand of spilled saw-dust. The sentinel who walks asle |% ep under apple-trees yawns. The moon regards little whores |% running down the prison yard into the dawn to shit, and she is |% tickled too. (Trees in morning are like strengths of young |% men poised to sprint.) There’s another sentinel wanders al |% ong besides a wall perhaps as old as he. The little moon |% pinks into insignificance:a grouch of sun gobbies the east— |% She is a white shadow asleep in the reddishness of |% Day |%

The moon-lit snow is falling like strange candy into the big eyes of the |% little people with smiling bodies and wooden feet |% hard thick feet full of toes |% left-handed kiss |% I think Berthe is the snow,and comes down into all corners of the city with a |% smelling sound. The moon shines all green in the snow |% then saw I 1 Star cold in the nearness of sunset. the face of this star was a |% woman’s and had worked hard. the cheeks were high and hard,it powdered them |% in a little mirror before everybody saying always nothing at all ‘The lips |% were small and warped,it reddened them. Then one cried to it & it cried Je |% viens and went on looking at itself in the little mirror saying always nothing |% —Then |%

ask the crowding orange—how is that star called? she answers Berthe |% changing into a violet very stealthily |% O with whom I lay |% Whose flesh is stallions |% Then I knew my youth trampled with thy hooves of nakedness |% 23years lying with thee in the bed in the little street off the Faubourg Mon |% martre |% tongue’s cold wad knocks |%

Vil |% Perhaps it was Myself sits down in this chair. There were two chairs,in fact |% My fur-coat on. Light one cigarette. You |% came her stalking straw-coloured body,cached with longness of kimona |% Myself got up out of a chair(there are two)say “Berthe” or something else |% Her Nudity seats Itself sharply beside. New person. —The champagne is ex- |% cellent sir.— so we are drinking a little,and talked gradually of the war |% France death my prison,all pleasant things. “Je m’occuperai tout particu- |% lierement de vos colis”. and send one to The Zulu,as i want, one to mon |% camarade “vous n’avez pas trop chaud avec la pelisse?”no...I decline more |% champagne anyway “Vous partez—/demain matin?” “le train part a huit heures |% un quart” |% I watched her Flesh graciously destroy its cruel posture “alors:il faut |% bien dormir |% ” then is to be noticed...plural darkness spanked with singular light over |% the pink |% bed |% To Undress—laughably mechanical how my great ludicrous silent boots thrown |% off Eye each other,really |% As she lay:the body a flapping rag of life;I see pale whim of suppressed face |% framed in the indignant hair,a jiggling rope of smile hung between painted |% cheeks. and the furry rug of tongue where her Few teeth dance slowly like |% bad women |% My thumb smashes the world— |% frot of furied eyes on brain!heart knotted with A suddenly nakedness— |%

thugs of clumsy mutter shove upward leaving fat |% feet-prints,rumbles poke buzzing thumbs |% in eye of world |% stovelike emotion rapidly scrambles toots and |% scurry nibbling screams and sleek |% whistles which sprint ribbons of |% white shriek! clatters limp |% from svelt blubbering tubes Big dins fuzzily |% lumber rub-bing their eyes |% thin very chimney lips wallow gushing cubes |% of unhasty delirium,chunks of |% indolence waddle slowly |% bangs punch |% explosion after |% explosion: from black lips sail chrome |% cries extra extra whatisit no? Yes |% no! yea: extra wheel! oh hear it |% what no-yes (extra’ extra) who, said |% Yea? what! yea! yes |%

Joy’s right boot squashes disciplined |% fragilities by slobber of,patient |% timidities undermined skyscrapers |% Krash;it (explodes in a) plastic Meeow |% —with uncouth snarl of sculptural |% fur through which Claws |% neatly |% leap Wall Street wriggles choked with gesturing |% human swill squirms gagged with |% a sprouting filth of faces extra |%

millions like crabs about a |% prosperous penis of bigness the woolworth |% building,slowly waving |% factories-stores-houses-burstcrack—people |% through,doorswindows, Tears a |% vomit of supernatural buttons |%

biffing sky battles huge city which escapes |% niftily through slit-of-sunset |% Broadway |% dumb signs ripe |% pustules of unhealth. squEEzed:spatter |% pop-p-ings of mad |% colour reveal |% canyons of superb nonsense. Vistas of |% neatness bunged with a wagging |% humanity poised;In the bathing |% instant a reek-of electric daintiness |%

goodby Betty,don’t remember me |% pencil your eyes dear and have a good time |% with the tall tight boys at Tabari’ |% s,keep your teeth snowy,stick to beer and lime |% wear dark,and where your meeting breasts are round |% have roses darling, it’s all i ask of you— |% but that when light fails and this sweet profound |% Paris moves with lovers,two and two |% bound for themselves,when passionately dusk |% brings softly down the perfume of the world |% (and just as smaller stars begin to husk |% heaven)you,you exactly paled and curled |% with mystic lips take twilight where i know |% proving to Death that Love is so and so |%

all night from timetotime the city’s accurate |% face peeks from smothering blanket |% of occult pandemonium |%

all night! into dawn-dingy dimness |% of almost |% streets; capers a trickle of mucus |% shapes equals girls men |%

Ix |% a Woman |% of bronze |% unhappy |% stands |% at the mouth |% an oldish woman |% in a night-gown |% Boosting a |% torch |% Always |% a tired woman |% she has had children |% and They have forgotten |% Standing |% looking out |% to sea |%

hips 1OOsest OOping shoulders blonde& pastoral hair,strong |% arms and smelling of |%

woman in a carotcoloured skin yellow face chipsofanger splayed |% from GriNDing-mouth waist pulledup on oneside |%

her |% sweaty corset |% eyeslike smoky idols |% girl,iceblue hair huGe lips like orangepeels,waV ingagreat |% tricolour |% yelling silently |% cheery-nose square pash eyes splut |% tering warench ofscarlet on right-breast legs |% monumentally aPart |% (Girl)flagstuck in her breasts. she bent her neck and bit It |% jam mingIt deeper—pink—complexion tooth gone left side red |% we epingeye s |%

their grey hands tired of making Death Probable |% hairycheeks faces like hugestrawberries |% they pass a funeral in |% silence and their branches had a terrible greenness |% La Gréve the Goddess |% tooth less |% witches from Whose.gumsBurs !tthe |% Cry |% leather faces,crinkling with Ideal,the common,people |% let-out of darkNess |%

this cigarette is extremely long |% i get them by the indigo box of 10 |% And then, you were sitting across from me |% and my blood silkily telling i was, how wrong |% (i thinking to have remembered how |% you were beautiful) this cigarette, when |% inhaled, produces a mystery |% like scented angels joking in a sharp soft row |% (i buy ro of them in an indigo box.) |% Wrists. Elbows, Shoulders. Fingers |% the minute amorous stirs |% of flesh invisibly visible (this |% cigarette, exhaled in musical shocks |% of kiss-coloured silence) by Christ kiss me. One kiss |%

love was—entire excellently steep |% therefore(most deftly as tall dreams unleash |% pale wish,between mirrors thoughts blundering |% merge;softly thing forgets its name |% memories descending open—time reverses) |% the million poets of our single flesh |% gradually prepare to enter sleep |% Around worldfully whom noises pour |% carefully(exploding faintly)while(humbling |% faintestly)among unminds go stumbling |% cries bright whip-crash leaps lunge thundering |% wheels and striving(are now faintestly)come |% strutting such(wonderfully how through our |% deepestly hearts immensely strolling)horses |%

Poems for Elaine Orr, 1918-19 |% I |% let us suspect,chérie,this not very big |% box completely mysterious,on whose shut |% lid in large letters but neatly is |% inscribed “Immortality”. And not |% go too near it,however people brag |% of the wonderful things inside |% which are altogether too good to miss— |% but we’ll go by,together, giving it a wide |% berth. Silently. Making our feet |% think. Holding our breath— |% if we look at it we will want to touch it |% And we mustn’t because(something tells me) |% ever so very carefully if we |% begin to handle it |% out jumps Jack Death |% Il |% sometime,perhaps in Paris we will |% have the enormous bright hour of evening |% when lazily the prostitutes are taking |% thither and hither their bright slender voices |% along the boulevards,among the sitting |% people in cafés |% “the world is,you feel |% (I just saw a man in a taxi who looked like God) |% a little sudden whore skilfully dying |% in Somebody’s arms,on the way to the theatre.” ——“Did |% your”—“And just suppose it were. Wouldn’t poor Royce’s |% hair tremble? What would Old Man Emerson |% say?”—“Emerson would probably say ‘I went to Paris |% and found myself.’”—“Probably.”—“And think of this one |% ‘Godal Mighty and Myself,by Frank Harris’!” |%

ladies and gentlemen this little girl |% with the good teeth and small important breasts |% (is it the Frolic or the Century whirl |% one’s memory indignantly protests) |% this little dancer with the tightened eyes |% crisp ogling shoulders and the ripe quite too |% large lips always clenched faintly,wishes you |% with all her fragile might to not surmise |% she dreamed one afternoon |% ....or maybe read |% of a time when the beautiful most of her |% (this here and This,do you get me?) |% will maybe dance and maybe sing and be |% absitively posolutely dead |% like Coney Island in winter |%

Ill |% chérie |% the very,picturesque,last Day |% (when all the clocks have lost their jobs and god |% sits up quickly to judge the Big Sinners) |% he will have something large and fluffy to say |% tome. All the pale grumbling wings |% of his greater angels will cease:as that Curse |% bounds neat-ly from the angry wad |% of his forehead(then fiends with pitchforkthings |% will catch and toss me lovingly to |% and fro.) Last,should you look,you |% ll find me prone upon a greatest flame |% which seethes in a beautiful way |% upward;with someone by the name |% of Paolo passing the time of day |%

my little heart is so wonderfully sorry |% lady,to have seen you on its threshold |% smiling,to have experienced the glory |% of your slender and bright going, and it is so cold |% (nothing being able to comfort its grief) |% without you,that it would like i guess to die |% Also my lady do i feel as if |% perhaps the newly darkening texture of my |% upon nothing a little clumsily closing |% mind will keep always something who has |% fallen,who being beautiful is gone |% and suddenly. As if you will point at the evening |% “in this particular place,my lover,the moon |% unspeakably slender and bright was” |%

the spring has been exquisite and the |% summer may be beautiful. But |% tell me with eyes quiteshut |% did you love me,will you love me |% and perfectly so forth;i see |% kissing you—only kissing |% you(it is still spring |% and summer may be beautiful)shall we |% say years? O let us say it,girl |% to boy smiling while the moments kill |% us gently and infinitely |% And believe(do not believe)there’ll |% be a time when even these leaves will |% crawl expensively away. My lady |%

willing pitifully to bewitch |% the nude worm of my reaching mind,to tease |% its gropings curiously i remark these |% frivolous slowlywinking lives which |% (like four or three pretty flies)the |% very and tremulous architecture |% of frail light suddenly will capture |% And i think |% (as if perhaps a tree |% should remember how Spring touched it)of your |% deep kiss which constructs faintly |% in me an upward country(on whose new shores |% the first day has not come,but it is quaintly |% always morning and silence)always where |% hang,in the morning,wistful corpses of stars |%

as |% we lie side by side |% my little breasts become two sharp delightful strutting towers and |% i shove hotly the lovingness of my belly against you |% your arms are |% young |% your arms will convince me,in the complete silence speaking |% upon my body |% their ultimate slender language |% do not laugh at my thighs |% there is between my big legs a crisp city |% when you touch me |% it is Spring in the city;the streets beautifully writhe |% it is for you;do not frighten them |% all the houses terribly tighten |% upon your coming |% and they are glad |% as you fill the streets of my city with children |% my love you are a bright mountain which feels |% you are a keen mountain and an eager island whose |% lively slopes are based always in the me which is shrugging,which is |% under you and around you and forever:i am the hugging sea |% O mountain you cannot escape me |% your roots are anchored in my silence;therefore O mountain |% skilfully murder my breasts,still and always |% i will hug you solemnly into me |% Vill |% my lady is an ivory garden |% who is filled with flowers |% under the silent and great blossom |% of subtle colour which is her hair |% her ear is a frail and mysterious flower |% her nostrils |% are timid and exquisite |% flowers skilfully moving |% with the least caress of breathing,her |% eyes and her mouth are three flowers. My lady |% is an ivory garden |% her shoulders are smooth and shining |% flowers |% beneath which are the sharp and new |% flowers of her little breasts tilting upward with love |% her hand is five flowers |% upon her whitest belly there is a clever dreamshaped flower |% and her wrists are the merest most wonderful flowers my |% lady is filled |% with flowers |% her feet are slenderest |% each is five flowers her ankle |% is a minute flower |% my lady’s knees are two flowers |% Her thighs are huge and firm flowers of night |% and perfectly between |% them eagerly sleeping |% is |% the sudden flower of complete amazement |% my lady who is filled with flowers |% is an ivory garden |% And the moon is a young man |% who i see regularly,about twilight |% enter the garden smiling to |% himself |%

if you like my poems let them |% walk in the evening,a little behind you |% then people will say |% “Along this road i saw a princess pass |% on her way to meet her lover(it was |% toward nightfall)with tall and ignorant servants.” |% Poems from The Dial Papers, 1919-20 |% I |% the comedian stands on a corner,the sky is |% ve ry soF. t Ly. Fal, Ling (snow |% with a limousines the and whisk of swiftly taxis God |% knows howmany mouths eyes bodies |% fleetly going into nothing |% verysky the and.of all is,slow- |% Ly.faLLing |% fallin g)FaLlInG odd |% ... which will. swiftly Hug kiss or |% a drunken Man bangs silent! Y into the moo |% n |% the comedian is standing. Ona corner in-a-dream |% of.(sn)ow |% in the nib; bling tune |%

“nextwehave the famous dancing team |% swiftness & nothing |% yletergo |% Professor |%

Il |% like most godhouses this particular house |% of god utters a chilly smell |% Within,the rector’s talking normal face |% like a cat who plays with a dead mouse |% skilfully mumbles about Hell |% pretending it’s alive, knowing it is |% not. That head which(you’ll confess) |% looks like the apple whereby Adam fell |% belongingly adorns the fat demure |% hairless man sitting heavily with what |% is obviously his wife,his small unthrilled |% circular ears winking to the word of God |% his large unclever mind carefully filled |% with inexpensive christian funiture |% lil |% This is the vase, Here |% is the crisp and the only and the very sudden garden in |% which the little princes strut,taller than |% flowers |% (here are,a thousand erect and bright |% princes tenderly smiling and smiling forever) |% this is the vase |% Here are a million alwaysmoving ladies |% always moving,and moving slenderly |% around a keen and little princess |% taller than a day |% This |% is the vase_ here are a billion |% warriors with furious and supple |% faces like white nouns. With |% bodies like smiling and gigantic verbs |% If we turn the |% vase,Slowly the little and |% keen princess will come slender |% -ly out of a million ladies. The |% bright and erect princes suddenly will strut |% in the garden. the soldiers |% who are supple and who |% are furious will become |% not only and crisply |% Gigantic and Smiling |% They will step from the |% vase |% tearless |% together |% taller than Tomorrow |%

my humorous ghost precisely will |% stray from the others on the hill |% if only to hear someone say |% exactly what someone has said |% Straying as softly as a puma |% it will come to Boston |% and sit in the Howard Atheneum |% up under the non si fuma |% (up in the ceiling with the old men |% With the wrinkles and eyes and tumours.) |% Precisely straying like a leopard |% or a music,will my ghost |% visit queerly the naked girls who |% wiggle at the end of second avenue |% in the Burlesque As You |% Like it,or gliding most |% softly into Hassan’s will see |% them all dancing together,a turk |% and one girl and three greeks |% with the cousin of the old Man In The Moon playing |% the kanoon. (After that |% precisely i will float into Moskowitz’s |% where there’s himself at the zimbalon,and |% Raisin tight with Jack Shargel at a table in the |% spidery music,ordering Bosca |% singing oona vaap and gesturing like a Petrouska |% And i’ll gesture as well as i am able in the |% transparent condition which ghosts |% are afflicted with |% my gestures will be in the past tense |% and bright and small and ridiculous.) |% And after all ll go to a certain |% house where the window is open |% i-will go in between the curtains |% silently, like a cat or atune. I will find |% softly and precisely a particular room where |% you are perfectly asleep in your hair |% and you will kiss my ghost thinking |% that it’s a dream,until i leap from you |% suddenly out into the morning |% dawn |% and now.begins |% feeling |% roofs |% a cool- |% ness-Before-light,(hush |% ) it’s the indescribable minute |% (noises |% happen |% Bigly! a milk-wagon |% totters(by,its sleepy horses step- |% ping like clockwork,a driver scarcely alive.)}bAnGiNgLy |% along which The little a street absurdly new |% ‘Houses |% are,with firm |% light | wonderful,but and |% suddenly) |% hear?do you birds begin which all to talk,loudly |% in the disappearing air |%

Above a between-the-acts prattling of |% the orchestra conducted by memory and behind this |% justfallen curtain of uneasy flesh |% which is a girl |% certain things shout and curse |% turning on lights setting up walls amid |% a very efficient confusion as certain |% other things i dare say take their |% proper places wiping their mouths adjusting a cravat and |% settling one’s vest or smoothing |% the hair |% and one immaculately tailored |% thing inhales a cigarette un- |% clenching and clench |% -ing plump fingers |% and peeping at the audience |% Because these to me wholly i |% confess impertinent |% noises are better than the politeness of |% silence or that is to say when the curtain |% rises and to all the other people who |% are my multitudinous cleansmelling selves |% who are sitting waiting to be thrilled |% Illusion |% makes its rubber gesture |% decidedly i refuse my lady your beautifully |% imbecile invitation to hasten the play |% Vil |% when time delicately is sponging sum after |% sum memory after memory |% from the neatening blackness |% of my mind |% and i am not exactly old |% (but Spring is |% Plunging in the big absurd world with |% a difference)and when the mauled |% flower of your mouth |% is old and cold,and bold |% i think(excuse me if i |% speak the truth)you will be yellow & sick |% for me(your |% mouth and the rest of you whatever |% that is,i suppose |% breasts and throat,legs and hands.) Lady |% in that |% day i think |% (it’s only thinking. Your pardon if i err.) |% i think you will be tired of telling |% me & my dreams to go to hell |%

by god i want above fourteenth |% fifth’s deep purring biceps,the mystic screech |% of Broadway,the trivial stink of rich |% frail firm asinine life |% (i pant |% for what’s below. thesinger. Wall. i want |% the perpendicular lips the insane teeth |% the vertical grin |% give me the Square in spring |% the little barbarous Greenwich perfumed fake |% And most,the futile fooling labyrinth |% where noisy colours stroll....and the Baboon |% sniggering insipidities while. i sit,sipping |% singular anisettes as. One opaque |% big girl jiggles thickly hips to the kanoon |% but Hassan chuckles seeing the Greeks breathe) |% Vi |% when you rang at Dick Mid’s Place |% the madam was a bulb stuck in the door |% a fang of wincing gas showed how |% hair,in two fists of shrill colour |% clutched the dull volume of her tumbling face |% scribbled with a big grin. her sow- |% eyes clicking mischief from thick lids |% the chunklike nose on which always the four |% tablets of perspiration erectly sitting |% —If they knew you at Dick Mid’s |% the three trickling chins began to traipse |% into the cheeks “eet smeestaire steevensun |% kum een,dare ease Bet,an Leelee,an dee beeg wun” |% her handless wrists did gooey severe shapes |% 12I |%

sometimes i am alive because with |% me her alert treelike body sleeps |% which i will feel slowly sharpening |% becoming distinct with love slowly |% who in my shoulder sinks sweetly teeth |% until we shall attain the Springsmelling |% intense large togethercoloured instant |% the moment pleasantly frightful |% when,her mouth suddenly rising,wholly |% begins with mine fiercely to fool |% (and from my thighs which shrug and pant |% a murdering rain leapingly reaches the |% upward singular deepest flower which she |% carries in a gesture of her hips) |% Ix |% o my wholly unwise and definite |% lady of the wistful dollish hands |% (whose nudity hurriedly extends |% its final gesture lewd and exquisite |% with a certain agreeable and wee |% decorum)o my wholly made for loving |% lady |% (and what is left of me |% your kissing breasts timidly complicate) |% only always your kiss will grasp me quite |% Always only my arms completely press |% through the hideous and bright night |% your crazed and interesting nakedness |% —from you always i only rise from something |% slovenly beautiful gestureless |%

xX |% my youthful lady will have other lovers |% yet none with hearts more motionless than i |% when to my lust she pleasantly uncovers |% the thrilling hunger of her possible body |% Noone can be whose arms more hugely cry |% whose lips more singularly starve to press her— |% noone shall ever do unto my lady |% what my blood does,when i hold and kiss her |% (or if sometime she nakedly invite |% me all her nakedness deeply to win |% her flesh is like all the ’cellos of night |% against the morning’s single violin) |% more far a thing than ships or flowers tell us |% her kiss furiously me understands |% like a bright forest of fleet and huge trees |% —then what if she shall have an hundred fellows |% she will remember,as i think,my hands |% (it were not well to be in this thing jealous.) |% My youthful lust will have no further ladies |%

lady you have written me a letter |% which i will never keep in a foolish vermilion |% box glad with possible dragons |% but in a surer place,and in a better |% place and in a richer(and |% if sometimes i will take it out,to see |% how it is,perhaps you will understand |% perhaps you will know that a million |% things happen richly in me.) |% And where i will put it away my lady |% you will understand,only if once |% (if leaning and with little breasts apart |% you quickly will look into the |% dark box of my shutting heart |%

but turning acorner ,i |% (Of)was am aware a talkative |% huge.ness moo.vingOne(tree a huge,talking of rain;squabb |% -ling leaves the.high .a) |% tree!Is or |% (is it leaves)the are.filled |% with moving.the colour |% of,night the is it col,our of the |% isColoured mobile&supreme |% dark |% Ness |% colour of rain |% Ness. dark,ness. colour of the. colour Of of |% i |% am a therefore |% little unsorry for our |% bodies,bodies of.you & me and |% unsorry because you and me are is |% one,tree unsorry;that |% (youandme,the)bodies!of,first singular |% Am strong and moving & answerable to oblivion |%

you said Is |% there anything which |% is dead or alive more beautiful |% than my body,to have in your fingers |% (trembling ever so little) |% Looking into |% your eyes Nothing,i said,except the |% air of spring smelling of never and forever |% ....and through the lattice which moved as |% if a hand is touched by a |% hand(which |% moved as though |% fingers touch a girl’s |% breast |% lightly) |% Do you believe in always,the wind |% Said to the rain |% I am too busy with |% my flowers to believe,the rain answered |%

is |% it |% because there struts a distinct silver lady |% (we being passionate O yes)upon |% the carpet of evening which thrills |% with the minuteness of her |% walking,for she walks |% upon the evening |% shy and luxurious and because |% we |% being |% passionate perceive o Yes where(immensely |% near) |% simply |% but with a colour like the ending of the world |% rises |% slow |% ly |% balloonlike |% the huge foetus of The Moon |% —with our gestures we pry |% and our mouths battle into distinctness. It |% is this kiss which builds in us ever so softly |% the coarse and terrible structure of the night |%

as one who(having written |% late)sees his light |% silenced |% and going to his window |% a little while he |% watches |% the inevitable city’s |% reborn enormous whisperless |% Body |% (and |% sees |% over & between the roofs |% the lifted streets |% un- |% speak |% -ing |% and he does not |% speak.)But perhaps |% inhaling a possible.cigarette |% he is sorry and |% pitiful.and he quietly repeats to |% himself |% something peculiar and small and dead |% And goes to sleep miserable & tall |% —so,my |% lady is |% your lover |% g81 |% when he a little closes his eyes |% thinking “tonight i did not lie in her bed.” and the Light |% The |% tall |% extraordinary Light ,It |% goes rapidly over the perhaps world(over |% the possible Now & the lilies.over |% Whoever & me?) |% nouns and |% violets |% ships, & countries |%

in front of your house i |% stopped for a second in the |% rain,in the Spring |% At the window |% only your hands |% beautifully |% were |% (and the green bird perched carefully upon |% a gesture |% knew me.) |%

Lady,i will touch you with my mind |% Touch you and touch and touch |% until you give |% me suddenly a smile,shyly obscene |% (lady i will |% touch you with my mind.) Touch |% you, that is all |% lightly and you utterly will become |% with infinite ease |% the poem which i do not write |% Poems from the 1920’s |% I |% the newly |% cued |% motif smites truly to beautifully |% retire through its english |% the forwardflung backwardspinning top returns fasterishly |% whipped the top leaps bounding upon other tops to caroming |% off persist displacing its own and their lives who |% grow slowly and first into different deaths |% concentric arithmetics of transparency slightly |% joggled sink through algebras of proud |% inwardlyness to collide spirally with iron geometries |% and mesh with |% which when both |% march outward into the freezing fire of thickness |% everywhere is updownwardishly |% found nowherecoloured curvecorners |% gush silently into solids |% more fluid than gas |%

2 |% now two old ladies sit peacefully knitting |% and their names are sometimes and always |% “7 can’t understand what life could have seen in him” stitch |% -counting always severely remarks;and her sister(suppress- |% ing a yawn)counters “o i don’t know;death’s rather attractive” |% —“attractive!why how can you say such a thing?when i think |% of my poor dear husband”—“now don’t be absurd:what i said was |% ‘rather attractive’,my dear;and you know very well that |% never was very much more than attractive,never was |% stunning”(a crash. Both jump)“good |% heavens!” always exclaims “what |% was that?”—“well here comes your daughter” |% soothes sometimes;at which |% death’s pretty young wife enters; wringing her hands,and wailing |% “that terrible child!”—“what” (sometimes and always together |% cry)“now?”—“my doll:my beautiful doll;the very |% first doll you gave me,mother(when i could scarcely |% walk)with the eyes that opened and shut(you remember |% don’t you,auntie;we called her love)and i’ve treasured |% her all these years,and today i went through a closet |% looking for something;and opened a box,and there she |% lay:and when he saw her,he begged me to let him |% hold her;just once:and i told him ‘mankind,be careful |% she’s terribly fragile:don’t break her,or mother’ll be angry’ ” |% and then(except for |% the clicking of needles)there was silence |%

a fragrant sag of fruit distinctly grouped |% I have not eaten peppers for a week |% On this street the houses immensely speak |% (it is nine minutes past six) |% the well-fed |%

“out of the pants which cover me |% frostbitten limbs from pole to pole |% I thank whatever tailors be |% for this unconquerable hole |% A little Porter tingaling |% is pleasant even for Sweeney in the Spring.” |% And at these words a sullen murmur ran |% out of the University of Pennsylvania |% “However which may be |% I grow old,I grow old |% I shall tell the tailor what he should be told.”— |% And as he spake Lars Porcelain |% struck his bathtub |% exclaiming,in words of one syllable,Eheu fugaces Postume |% (and nobody knew what daisy knew |% for all men kill the thing they love |% Some does it with a turn of the screw |% and go wilde afterwards he adding settled |% his frustrated celluloid collar |%

pound pound pound |% on thy cold grey corona oh P |% but I would that my tongue could utter |% the silence of Alfred Noise |% Speak speak thou Fearful guest;tell me,immediate |% child of Homer—when you wrote The Dial Cantos did you know |% of the organ and the monkey |% Tears,idle Tears! I know not what you mean |% dear little Sweeney,child of fate |% how dost thou?—And the stiff dishonoured nightingales |% fled is that music. (I perceive |% a with undubitably clotted hinderparts in obviously |% compatriot;let us step into this metaphor.) |% 2 shes |% both not quite |% young perfectly |% respectable obviously married |% women each a you |% know soup son more |% a(with of course their well |% above their showing) |% sit Sat |%

ing and lookanding andlookingand at |% what That)then i |% start |% ed |% laughing obvicouldn’t |% ouslyhelp itwhy be |% cause the |% he can you sitting |% on that very bench in perfectly |% bright obviously sunlight Right |% before Every |% one the yes Hole |%

was(praying chin up eyes |% tightshut locked |% hands pray)ing unbeliev |% able he real |% (was young was |% niceyeslooking but some |% Yes |%

how weak sort of or i doano)the |% atrical now you |% got me laughing but we shooden eye |% can’t helpid omygod hehehemygodhegodmy |% god. Allatonce the apparition |% arose and |% looking straightahead |% offwalked |% dis( |% appea)ring a |% mong treestreestrees |% greennewlying |% I |%

When parsing warmths of dusk construe |% The moon a noun of personal blood |% Subject to that veteran verb |% Of imperative vacancy |% The velvet tiger of my soul |% Washing in fundamental mind |% Ellided chaos hating |% Leases sensation absolute |% Then clustering to the average green |% Slants the huge ship of total lust |% Footed with foam and clewed with stars |% Into my gaunt uneating heart |% gg |%

Lady,since your footstep |% is more frail than everything |% which lives,than everything which breathes |% in the earth and in the sea |% because your body is more new |% a dream(skilfully who mimics,entirely who pictures |% yourself a skilfully and entirely moving dream |% with fingers,a dream with lifted little breasts |% and with feet)touches |% me through the day scarcely,timidly |% whereas,beside me through the long night and upon |% me, always i feel the crisply and deeply moving |% you which is so glad to be alive— |% the you with hot big inward stealing |% thighs,perfectly who steal me;or as the wise |% sea steals entirely and skilfully the ignorant earth |% being(just a little) |% too tired from kissing |% for thinking or anything |% except dreaming |% let us suppose |% O my lady:at dusk |% between the earth and the sea |% ourselves,you and i together mysteriously and always floating |% moving;absorbing mysteriously(or as desire absorbs |% a dream)and(as if we were dream or dreams)mysteriously |% engulfed by fatal immensities of twilight—O imagine(softly as |% we,our minds,mysteriously together moving float always |% between the ocean and the world)that,smiling,i remark to |% you:of these five waves the wave |% which waits is most great |% (of these nine roses,you |% reply seriously,she who chiefly hides |% herself is deepest) |%

4 |% Lady |% i pray to what is unimaginable |% to your smile |% which will not even allow even my pencil |% nearer than a thousand miles |% i pray to your eyes |% whose niceness decides my pen |% it is a thick fool |% my brushes go big and stupid |% and their colour(s)turns to paint before |% your laughter,to which i kneel |% i worship at your tears |% i approach your tears with my best chisels |% (but in your least tear there is nothing |% conceivable) |% my chisels stutter and wobble |% But chiefly i entreat your timidity |% (i mean that aspect of you which so easily can |% explore completely and enjoy the occult textures |% consult wholly and continually the invisible edges,of that and this |% distinguish swiftly and exquisitely |% in all things what entirely is alive.) |%

Whereupon i seize a train and suddenly i am in Paris toward night,in Mai |% Along the river trees are letting go scarcely and silently wisps,parcels |% of incense,which drop floatingly through a vista of talking moving people |% timidly which caress hats and shoulders,wrists and dresses;which unspeak- |% ingly alight upon the laughter of men and children, girls and soldiers |% In twilight these ridiculous and exquisite things descendingly move among |% the people,gently and imperishably. People are not sorry to be alive |% People are not ashamed. People smile,moving gaily and irrevocably moving |% through twilight to The Gingerbread Fair. I am alive,I go along too |% slowly go up the vista among the hats and soldiers,among the smiles and |% neckties,the kisses and old men,wrists and laughter. We all together ir- |% revocably are moving,are moving slowly and gaily moving. _Intricately the |% shoulders of us and our hats timidly are touched by a million absurd hint- |% ing things;by wisps and by women and by laughter and by forever:while |% upon our minds,fasten beautifully and close the warm tentacles of evening |%

in front of the cathedral hovered a mumbling nobody:its greenish fumbling |% flesh swathed with crumbling alive rags,its trunk topped abruptly by a |% slouch hat under which carefully existed the deep filthy face and out of |% which sprouted wisely a decayed yellowish width of beard |% he came out just at noon:the little Place Saint Michel banged and tooted |% in shallow hard sunlight; from all which upreaching through white fog the |% boulevard hung,in a maze of sticky colour punched here and here at inter- |% vals by black blunt shapes or where some hobgoblin trees poking sprouted |% amputated hands |%

’s immaculate roar looped |% straightens,into neatest distance |% A new curve of children gladly cricks |% where a hurdy-gurdy accurately pants |% and pompous ancient jews obscurely twitch |% through the bumping teem of Grand. a nudging froth |% of faces clogs Second as Mrs. Somethingwich |% (with flesh like an old toy balloon) |% heavily swims to Strunsky’s |% Monia’s mouth |% eats tangerines looking at the moon— |% Vill |% irreproachable ladies firmly lewd |% on dangerous slabs of tilting din whose |% mouths distinctly walk |% your smiles accuse |% the dusk with an untimid svelte subdued |% magic |% while in your eyes there lives |% a green egyptian noise. ladies with whom time |% feeds especially his immense lips |% On whose deep nakedness death most believes |% perpetual girls marching to love |% whose bodies kiss me with the square crime |% of life....Cecile,the oval shove |% of hiding pleasure. Alice,stinging quips |% of flesh. Loretta, cut the comedy |% kid |% Fran Mag Glad Dorothy |%

taxis toot whirl people moving perhaps laugh into the slowly |% millions and finally O it is spring since at all windows |% microscopic birds sing fiercely two ragged men and a |% filthiest woman busily are mending three wholly broken somehow |% bowls or somethings by the web curb and carefully spring is |% somehow skilfully everywhere mending smashed minds |% O |% the massacred gigantic world |% again,into keen sunlight who lifts |% glittering selfish new |% limbs |% and my heart stirs in his rags shaking from his armpits the |% abundant lice of dreams laughing |% rising sweetly out of the alive new mud my old |% man heart striding shouts whimpers screams breathing into |% his folded belly acres of sticky sunlight chatters bellows |% swallowing globs of big life pricks wickedly his |% mangled ears blinks into worlds of colour shrieking |% O begins |% the mutilated huge earth |% again,up through darkness leaping |% who sprints weirdly from its deep prison |% groaning with perception and suddenly in all filthy alert things |% which jumps mightily out of death |% muscular,stinking,erect,entirely born |%

4 |% long ago,between a dream and a dream |% (when monsieur matal directed la reine blanche |% opposite cluny’s gladly miraculous most |% vierge et l’enfant)someone was morethanalive |% with love; with love:with love—love of whom |% love:paris;la france,une fille and at least |% (while every night was a day and a day was dimanche) |% seven or—not to exaggerate—certainly five |% selves beyond every human imagining my |% whereas,in this epoch of mindandsoul,to feel |% you’re not two billion other unselves is enough |% to scare any no one nearly-if-not-quite stiff |% —how did(i often ask me)that someone die |% but just as often the answer’s only a smile |% them which despair |% do we despise,being seated |% in the cave’s oblong darkness |% having commanded our minute glasses |% of colourless fire |% Nothing is better than this |% except which has not happened,thence |% i bid you(as very deeply you near the gates of |% Hell)cast like Euridyce one brief look behind |% yourself |% Voila Monsieur Le Patron |% excuse me:I was talking. He pours |% quickly skilfully just |% It. Glistens |% Voila—the waterhued extract of Is |% believe:sipping,enter my arms;let us invade sumptuously |% the hurrying extravagant instant....come mon amie |% let us investigate suddenly |% our lives,let us drink calvados |% let us shut ourselves into the garret of Now |% and swallow the key |%

Paris,thou art not |% merely these streets trees silence |% twilight,nor even this single star jotting |% nothing busily upon the green edges of evening |% nor the faces which sit and drink on the boulevards, laughing |% which converse smoke smile,thou art |% not only a million little ladies fluttering merely upon darkness— |% these things thou art and thou art all which is alert perishable |% alive:thou art the sublimation of our |% lives eyes voices |% thou art the gesture by which we express to one another all |% which we hold more dear and fragile than death |% thou art the dark dear fragile |% gesture which we use |% Life ’s—let us not too much protest—not clumsy |% more than another thing. Nor ungainly |% but(after all)of a convenient size |% not too minute to die about |% nor too big to lie about |% softly above everything the strolling |% upward ghost of le tour Eiffel quietly wonderfully |% hangs;haunting the mai |% 7 |% Perfectly a year,we watched Together les enfants jumping and |% cry Prenez garde Monsieur c’est Le Diable and.punch jerk |% bonnes giggled-background slope,Erect |% ..under grEEnoftrees;shadowily |% softness |% mon ami |% hoary |% goldfish pluc k ing |% at bread |% 2balloons red&blue tiedtogethergo Up.bumP ingand |% HOpPinG |% the merrygoround |% (eternal) |% boats |% leaping with wind comingin SatisFiedor st:uck under the |% central fountain |% and;spherical chestnut-trees |% soldiers,Le Jardin |% and(still)in the louvre the knight sleeps 8 monksbear Him with |% bent?heads his feet rest,on his Dog |% paris |% paris |% paris |% it was about to rain and,a thousand girls came-marching into |% the same garden flinging their marching Spurting youth |% on the |% grass |% green |% things branches in Their hands red on their Breasts crowns |% of fleur d’oranger on brown heads |%

as if they had torn upthe World bytheroots |% all seeking the sunlight-Bridegroom |% large mouth of Jean little |% a young Place soldier chucks de la half a dozen of oranges |% République uptothe sitters on the Monument |% the women cry |% vive le poilu |% voila deux sous |% he’s forced to take their money |% look |% my fingers,which |% touched you |% and your warmth and crisp |% littleness |% —see?do not resemble my |% fingers. My wrists hands |% which held carefully the soft silence |% of you(and your body |% smile eyes feet hands) |% are different |% from what they were. My arms |% in which all of you lay folded |% quietly,like a |% leaf or some flower |% newly made by Spring |% Herself,are not my |% arms. I do not recognise |% as myself this which i find before |% me inamirror. ido |% not believe |% i have ever seen these things |% someone whom you love |% and who is slenderer |% taller than |% myself has entered and become such |% lips as i use to talk with |% a new person is alive and |% gestures with my |% or it is perhaps you who |% with my voice |% are |% playing |%

9 |% when of your eyes one smile entirely brings down |% the night in rain over the shy town of my mind |% when upon my heart lives the loud alive darkness |% and in my blood beating and beating with love |% the chuckling big night puzzles asquirm with sound |% when all my reaching towers and roofs are drenched with love |% my streets whispering bulge my trembling houses yearn |% my walls throb and writhe my spires curl with darkness |% then in me hands light lamps against this darkness(hands here |% and there hands go thither and hither in my town) |% carefully close windows shut doors |%

this fear is no longer dear. You are not going to America and |% i but that doesn’t in the least matter. The big |% fear Who had us deeply in his fist is |% no longer,can you imagine it |% i can’t which doesn’t matter |% and what does is possibly this dear,that we |% may resume impact with the inutile,collide |% once more with the imagined,love,and eat sunlight(do |% you believe it? i begin to and that doesn’t matter)which i |% suggest teach us a new terror whereby shall always brighten |% carefully those things we consider life |%

the other guineahen |% died of a broken heart and we came to New York |% I used to sit at a table,drawing wings |% with a pencil that kept breaking and i kept |% remembering how your mind looked when it slept |% for several years,to wake up asking why |% So then you turned into a photograph |% of somebody who’s trying not to laugh |% at somebody who’s trying not to cry |%

love’s absence is illusion,alias time |% (a shadowy hell whose inmates war to seize |% each nothing which all greedy wraiths proclaim |% substance;all frenzied spectres,happiness) |% lovers alone wear sunlight. The whole truth |% (not hid by matter;not by mind revealed) |% which never was by any living death |% or dying life(and never will be)told |% sings only—and all lovers are the song |% Here(only here)is freedom;always here |% no then of winter equals now of spring |% but april’s day transcends november’s year |% (eternity being so sans until |% twice i have lived forever in a smile) |%

Float |% ing |% ly) |% i |% (in Khoury’s warm |% ish |% look |% ing at thousands of |% winter afternoons,through a |% sometimes |% a window In khoury |% b) |% S |% womB |% for Ladies and Gents |% like Restaurant |% (always in Whom faces) |% ora mi |% (sleep tick |% s clock and |% occasionally upon the) |% perdreamhapsing |% (floor cats drift) |%

birds meet above the new Moon |% an instant:drooping,describe suddenly |% arcs of craziness;chasing each |% other,disappear wisely into the texture of twilight |% She is as slender as an accident |% and seems to notice nothing— |% perhaps |% what is worthy of her comprehension |% does not exist |% (or else |% in her mute way this portion of a circumference |% understands all mysteries) |% —birds crying to each other |% faintly whirl and |% pivot in thickening air;now is the melted moment of terror and of |% dreams but the earth rising imperceptibly merging with the |% lost sea bends inward and |% entirely,subtly vanishes |%

nearer:breath of my breath:take not thy tingling |% limbs from me:make my pain their crazy meal |% letting thy tigers of smooth sweetness steal |% slowly in dumb blossoms of new mingling |% deeper:blood of my blood:with upwardcringing |% swiftness plunge these leopards of white dream |% in the glad flesh of my fear:more neatly ream |% this pith of darkness:carve an evilfringing |% flower of madness on gritted lips |% and on sprawled eyes squirming with light insane |% chisel the killing flame that dizzily grips |% Querying greys between mouthed houses curl |% thirstily. Dead stars stink. dawn. Inane |% the poetic carcass of a girl |% Xx |% when thou hast taken thy last applause,and when |% the final curtain strikes the world away |% leaving to shadowy silence and dismay |% that stage which shall not know thy smile again |% lingering a little while 1 see thee then |% ponder the tinsel part they let thee play |% i see the large lips vivid,the face grey |% and silent smileless eyes of Magdalen |% The lights have laughed their last;without,the street |% darkling awaiteth her whose feet have trod |% the silly souls of men to golden dust |% she pauses on the lintel of defeat |% her heart breaks in a smile—and she is Lust |% mine also,little painted poem of god |%

5 |% tonight the moon is round golden entire. It |% is satisfied and fragile,it does not |% ask questions |% such as “do you earn your living? And if |% not why not” or “how,under the circumstances,will |% you support yourself?” The moon is |% round,not interested in |% conduct |% yellow |% and complete. Before proceeding |% anywhere she takes care to surround her keen and |% punctual circumference with an opaque |% nimbus of perfectly safe colour,having |% done which the moon |% strides patiently along the wide quiet sky |% like an intense disinterested virgin |% Who(finding herself with child)is peculiarly |% careful not to lose the luminous smile which |% has broken more than a handful of hearts,sent |% a good many bright eyes into the dirt |% hurried several big words into worms |% O poor moon |% you will have a morning |% but you will be eventually slender |% and noone will know unless perhaps the blind |% force who laughs behind the sky |% the profound clown,Spring |% Late Poems 1930—62 |% I |% I |% this(a up green hugestness who and climbs) |% alive this crumb(infinitesimal |% this chip of being)jump does twenty times |% easily unitself |% making my soul |% wholly rejoice(and my only heart so full |% of amazing god,each every bounce of blood |% perfectly equals several trillion ams) |% this(now rewandering one grassblade)how |% occult particle of vitality did |% totally transform the—and i mean |% (sans blague)totally—universe with one |% gesture |% Thanks,colossal acrobat |% stupendous artist,feeble i salute |% spontaneous insuperable you |%

cont)- |% in |% this |% crazily |% per |% c |% hedtown(screams a |% & screams |% \& |% screams |% A |% n(about to |% bring for |% thw |% omb |% an |% -(in |% u |% all |% y |% mary green |% cheerful & generous |% flew to america |% (just like a dream) |% fearless & loyal |% (honest & strong) |% utterly irish |% & realer than sunlight |% it’s lucky the man is |% herself will make happy |% (though poor he’ll be rich & |% if old he’ll grow young) |%

4- |% lively and loathesome moe’s respectably dead |% via(the papers are prudent)a heartattack |% dead is the whiteeyed face of,absurdly stuck |% to its perfumed piglike body,a shark;and gone |% “thiz-iz-un a chuf-tran-zish n” he frequently said |% (married a nice gal who’d slaved in a buttonhole fac |% tory:did odd jobs;ran errands like crazy,read black |% stone every night;and landed skyhigh)no down |% and out poor sonofabitch could possibly fail |% to get a dollar from moe(“meye sel-veye-wuz poor”) |% but nobody doublecrossed him and lived. Somehow |% it’s devilish hard to realize we won’t any more |% hear his “sew-lawn-gooi eyel bih-seen-gyoo” |% which maybe |% (and Only A Just Judge knows) |% he will |%

5 |% “think of it:not so long ago |% this was a village” |% “yes;i know” |% “of human beings who prayed and sang |% or am i wrong?” |% “no,you’re not wrong” |% “and worked like hell six days out of seven” |% “to die as they lived:in the hope of heaven” |% “didn’t two roads meet here?” |% “they did |% and over yonder a schoolhouse stood” |% “do i remember a girl with blue- |% sky eyes and sun-yellow hair?” |% “do you?” |% “absolutely” |% “that’s very odd |% for i’ve never forgotten one frecklefaced lad” |% “what could have happened to her and him?” |% “maybe they waked and called it a dream” |% “in this dream were there green and gold |% meadows?” |% “through which a lazy brook strolled” |% “wonder if clover still smells that way |% up in the mow” |% “full of newmown hay” |% “and the shadows and sounds and silences” |% “yes,a barn could be a magical place” |% “nothing’s the same:is it” |% “something still |% remains,my friend;and always will” |% “namely?” |% “if any woman knows |% one man in a million ought to guess” |% “what of the dreams that never die?” |% “turn to your left at the end of the sky“ |% “where are the girls whose breasts begin?” |% “under the boys who fish with a pin” |% IOI5 |%

out of bigg |% est the knownun |% barn |% b |% s |% on tiptoe darkne |%

boyandgirl |% come |% into as |% unwor |% ld 2 to |% be blessed by |% floating |% are |% shadows of ove |% r us-you-me a |% —™o me Ss |% I |%

the phonograph may(if it likes)be prophe |% tic:for instance let me recount to you,in |% Sapphics quite dissimilar unto A.Swin |% burne’s the adventure |% of Our Ezra,delver in mines strictly aes |% thetic(short aes long as it happens by ex |% ception)subjects,per what is loosely called a |% Victor Victrola |% —then right doggishly cocking one ear(bowwow) |% our hero heard suddenly His Master’s Voice |% “O Ezra, dear Ezra,come home to us now |% for the clock in the(yes)steeple strikes(Yes)Joyce” |%

in hammamet did camping queers et al) |% with caverns measureless to man and how |% lest which your worships deem apocryphal |% o get a load of yonder arab now |% bowed by the gaze of pederasts he queens |% upon his toe and minces at the sand |% the sorrows of young werther in his teens |% and in his pants the urging of the hand |% near and more near their draping selves redrape |% lascivious hips against insisting sky |% can there be no asylum no escape |% (his donkey looks mohammed in the eye |% Le |% bud(spiggy nuvduh fienus |% cundry unduh fuggnwurl Who |% Ray)this do |% odling u |% th with one muddy fu |% t parked on yon polished readingru |% mtable is a foo |% llfledged soo |% perstoo |% dent of what was harvard yoo |% niversity until a few |% late unpleasantnesses made edew |% cation trew |% ly you | |% niversal by simply&silently substito |% ting for A(not C but)Bminus |%

April” |% this letter’s dated |% « |% 23 |% 1946” and if anything |% could prove the unprovable coming of such a spring |% as nobody every imagined(including me) |% Joe(for it’s he)Gould’s final remark would more |% than execute perform achieve and do |% the socalled trick with a universe to spare |% (a universe far from excluding you) |% so let us now pay strict attention “Af |% ter all our genial friend the atomic bomb |% is merely the transmutation of metal dream |% ed of by mediaeval alchemists.” Paragraph |% (who sighed “a rose,By any other name |% would smell as” |% Juliet) |% “Hoping you’re the same |%