Sonnet: O City, City
To live between terms, to live where death Has his loud picture in the subway ride, Being amid six million souls, their breath An empty song suppressed on every side, Where the sliding auto’s
Prothalamion
“little soul, little flirting, little perverse one where are you off to now? little wan one, firm one little exposed one… and never make fun of me again.” Now I must betray myself. The
Archaic Bust Of Apollo
(After Rilke) We cannot know the indescribable face Where the eyes like apples ripened. Even so, His torso has a candelabra’s glow, His gaze, contained as in a mirror’s grace, Shines within it. Otherwise
Calmly We Walk Through This April's Day
Calmly we walk through this April’s day, Metropolitan poetry here and there, In the park sit pauper and rentier, The screaming children, the motor-car Fugitive about us, running away, Between the worker and the
What Curious Dresses All Men Wear
What curious dresses all men wear! The walker you met in a brown study, The President smug in rotogravure, The mannequin, the bathing beauty. The bubble-dancer, the deep-sea diver, The bureaucrat, the adulterer, Hide
Love And Marilyn Monroe
(after Spillane) Let us be aware of the true dark gods Acknowledgeing the cache of the crotch The primitive pure and pwerful pink and grey private sensitivites Wincing, marvelous in their sweetness, whence rises
America, America!
I am a poet of the Hudson River and the heights above it, the lights, the stars, and the bridges I am also by self-appointment the laureate of the Atlantic – of the peoples’
The First Night Of Fall And Falling Rain
The common rain had come again Slanting and colorless, pale and anonymous, Fainting falling in the first evening Of the first perception of the actual fall, The long and late light had slowly gathered
Sonnet: The Ghosts Of James And Peirce In Harvard Yard
In memory of D. W. Prall The ghosts of James and Peirce in Harvard Yard At star-pierced midnight, after the chapel bell (Episcopalian! palian! the ringing soared!) Stare at me now as if they
Phoenix Lyrics
I If nature is life, nature is death: It is winter as it is spring: Confusion is variety, variety And confusion in everything Make experience the true conclusion Of all desire and opulence, All
News Of The Gold World Of May
News of the Gold World of May in Holland Michigan: “Wooden shoes will clatter again on freshly scrubbed streets “ The tulip will arise and reign again from awnings and windows of all colors
At This Moment Of Time
Some who are uncertain compel me. They fear The Ace of Spades. They fear Loves offered suddenly, turning from the mantelpiece, Sweet with decision. And they distrust The fireworks by the lakeside, first the
Two Lyrics From Kilroy's Carnival: A Masque
I Aria ” Kiss me there where pride is glittering Kiss me where I am ripened and round fruit Kiss me wherever, however, I am supple, bare and flare (Let the bell be rung
Parlez-Vous Francais?
Caesar, the amplifier voice, announces Crime and reparation. In the barber shop Recumbent men attend, while absently The barber doffs the naked face with cream. Caesar proposes, Caesar promises Pride, justice, and the sun
Far Rockaway
“the cure of souls.” Henry James The radiant soda of the seashore fashions Fun, foam and freedom. The sea laves The Shaven sand. And the light sways forward On self-destroying waves. The rigor of