I'd make a porcupine of you
Sinews and thighs
And Death, the voluptous, calling
Her course by stars among the smoky tides

Cluster of noble ghosts
Yet fruitless fell
Give no hint to the hours
Make a tall and heavy chair

There is only the creak of harness
The crows in the twisted apple limbs
Like Vulcan's anvil in his belly
Aboard the ship, whatever hope of dawn

From hands so pale and thin
What more can be done
Alas for the young companions
Quick fall his ghostly hammer blows

Stayed by what was, and pulled by what would be.
She moves as water moves, and comes to me,
In that slow dark that widens every eye.
I feel her presence in the common day,
A lively thing can come to life again.
She knows the speech of light and makes it plain
She dances, and the ground bears her away.
She cries out the soul's own secret joy:
The garden is a river flowing south.
We sing together; we sing mouth to mouth.

Down long sea-chambers of the inner ear.
She lilts a low soft language, and I hear
She makes space lonely with a lovely song.
If she but sighs, a bird puts out its tongue.
My lady laughs, delighting in what is.
I think the dead are tender. Shall we kiss?--

Be quiet wind a little while
Between the blue that burned the swimming bay
Beyond the doorway of the tiny room
By the pulse that beats in my throat

Out from the mighty town
Out on the water was the same display
O ye winged valour of our nation's soul
Procrastination fumbles
Pure blood domestic, guaranteed

So imminent the earth's returning
Somewhere a hungry muzzle rooted
Soon will the lonely petrel
Spread your long arms

Young Wish for a Wife

When I am no one.
When I am undone,
In the sun, in the sun,
And your hair ever blaze,
Without hate, without grief,
May you live out your life
Of envy's mean gaze;
Survive the green ice
May the eyes in your face
May your limbs never wither,
My lizard, my lively writher.

Girl-Young

My bird-blood ready.
A bird my body,
My thin arms to and fro,
My eyes neither here nor there,
Today I skipped on the shore,
At times content to be two.
I am told by those who know,--
We are one, and yet we are more,

Make that my study.
I, on coming to love,
It takes in the whole body;
What can the spirit believe?--

I doubt a lovely thing is dead
If I am blind, do not encumber me
I had not thought (ah, God! had I but known!)

I heard the plowman sing in the wind
I know him now, not now to know demanding
In a green place lanced through

In the dank cave the festering venom drips
I passed through the gates of the city
I saw one hung upon a cross
I soothe to unimagined sleep
I will accomplish that and this
I wish my tongue were a quiver

I would not have thee, dear, in darkness sit
Look away now from the high lonesome hills
Love's music curved for me
Make small and hard
Master, take your finest wood
Near to their last embrace, back...

O good sun

Carry your grief alone
Cedar and jagged fir
Down on the flat of the lake
Each pale Christ stirring underground
Easily to the old
Encompassed by a thousand nameless fears
Far voices
Fine gold is here; yea, heavy yellow gold
Fly away, away, swallow

For eyes he waved greentipped
For hours the princess would not play or sleep

From plains that reel to the southward, dim
From stone to bronze, from bronze to steel

From where I sit, I see the stars

Hearing the strange night-piercing sound
Here by the gray north sea
In the narrow room there is no light

Clouds grow clear, the pine-wood glooms and stills
Dark green truck on the cement platform
Fallow mind in winter knows the scope
Fire roared loudly in the double stove
Glittering roofs are still with frost; each worn
Haw clings to the thorn
Immortal spirit hath no bars
The kettle sang the boy to a half-sleep
Red and yellow of the Autumn salt grass
The saws were shreiking

Fields of light and laughing air
These dreams abound
Small activity of mice
Smell of woodyards in the rain is strong
Soil is quick with the dust of men
Sun goes down, and over all
The trees still seem a reincarnation

Weasel and wren consort
The world is a gift again

To burn at least one thing in the floods

For both lungs' air, my hand is wet

I am not greedy
I will do what I am told

You are alone and you are easy
and I loved him but I could not save him.

And no, there is no one here.
I trust in God, I fear no one--but tonight I am afraid

but why today?

Night is such a furled, feminine thing

The sea is in sight
It has no name

All this explaining exhausts me

What is the past
beyond desire?

A mouth reveals an aerial view

Fill in the blank
with your trumpet

The room the sun never touched,

Where does the girl hide her great distances?

I heard the terrible laughter of termites

To the poets that have fled
Trees; hands upthrust in tattered black lace mitts
Two thousand years are dust and dream

We have sweat our share
We may dream of what hath been
We throw cold ashes on the stair
What if the sun comes out
What is the office of the first hour?
What time the wily robin tuggeth the worm
What, what, what

When the first larks began to soar

Where is the word of Your youth and beauty
Wind is an old wine, comrade
You, my friend, who are dead and will never awaken
You say it's this or that

A fish dripping
All April night clear water runs
All day I follow
All day there will be blue raindrops and the swell
All days were night before this day's dear prime
Along the line of smoky hills
An iris-flower with topaz leaves
April is no month for burials
Aptness shall come from whence
As gulls sift current for their need
A sudden flash of heat
A warm rain whispers, but the earth knows best
A wing of snow

And how am I to convince you if you aren't here to
Convince?

Look you've won a Ghost Town

Which left some hours ago

Yes my captain, I

Was there

But what's the use of being pretty If I won't get better?

I want to be younger than I am

I am about to recite a psalm I know

And you will know what I told you is true

When another subway came I crawled on

I am going to fail light and stars and tears