Delmore Schwartz
In The Naked Bed, In Plato's Cave
In the naked bed, in Plato’s cave, Reflected headlights slowly slid the wall, Carpenters hammered under the shaded window, Wind troubled the window curtains all night long, A fleet of trucks strained uphill, grinding,
Occasional Poems
I Christmas Poem for Nancy Noel, Noel We live and we die Between heaven and hell Between the earth and the sky And all shall be well And all shall be unwell And once
For The One Who Would Take Man's Life In His Hands
Tiger Christ unsheathed his sword, Threw it down, became a lamb. Swift spat upon the species, but Took two women to his heart. Samson who was strong as death Paid his strength to kiss
Philology Recapitulates Ontology, Poetry Is Ontology
Faithful to your commandments, o consciousness, o Holy bird of words soaring ever whether to nothingness or to inconceivable fulfillment slowly: And still I follow you, awkward as that dandy of ontology and as
Poem (Old man in the crystal morning after snow)
Old man in the crystal morning after snow, Your throat swathed in a muffler, your bent Figure building the snow man which is meant For the grandchild’s target, do you know This fat cartoon,
Late Autumn In Venice
(After Rilke) The city floats no longer like a bait To hook the nimble darting summer days. The glazed and brittle palaces pulsate and radiate And glitter. Summer’s garden sways, A heap of marionettes
Cambridge, Spring 1937
At last the air fragrant, the bird’s bubbling whistle Succinct in the unknown unsettled trees: O little Charles, beside the Georgian colleges And milltown New England; at last the wind soft, The sky unmoving,
Sonnet Suggested By Homer, Chaucer, Shakespeare, Edgar Allan Poe, Paul Vakzy, James Joyce, Et Al
Let me not, ever, to the marriage in Cana Of Galilee admit the slightest sentiment Of doubt about the astonishing and sustaining manna Of chance and choice to throw a shadow’s element Of disbelief
Apollo Musagete, Poetry, And The Leader Of The Muses
Nothing is given which is not taken. Little or nothing is taken which is not freely desired, freely, truly and fully. “You would not seek me if you had not found me”: this is
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
I looked toward the movie, the common dream, The he and she in close-ups, nearer than life, And I accepted such things as they seem, The easy poise, the absence of the knife, The
Concerning The Synthetic Unity Of Apperception
“Trash, trash!” the king my uncle said, “The spirit’s smoke and weak as smoke ascends. “Sit in the sun and not among the dead, “Eat oranges! Pish tosh! the car attends. “All ghosts came
Words For A Trumpet Chorale Celebrating The Autumn
“The trumpet is a brilliant instrument.” – Dietrich Buxtehude Come and come forth and come up from the cup of Your dumbness, stunned and numb, come with The statues and believed in, Thinking this
A Dream Of Whitman Paraphrased, Recognized And Made More Vivid By Renoir
Twenty-eight naked young women bathed by the shore Or near the bank of a woodland lake Twenty-eight girls and all of them comely Worthy of Mack Sennett’s camera and Florenz Ziegfield’s Foolish Follies. They
Someone Is Harshly Coughing As Before
Someone is harshly coughing on the next floor, Sudden excitement catching the flesh of his throat: Who is the sick one? Who will knock at the door, Ask what is wrong and sweetly pay
O Love, Sweet Animal
O Love, dark animal, With your strangeness go Like any freak or clown: Appease tee child in her Because she is alone Many years ago Terrified by a look Which was not meant for