Pan
… Among the shadows of the groaning elms,
Amid the darkening oaks, we fled ourselves…
… Once there were paths that led to coracles
That clung to piers like loosening barnacles…
… where we cannot return, because we lost
The pebbles and the playthings, and the moss…
… hangs weeping gently downward, maidens’ hair
Who never were enchanted, and the stairs…
… that led up to the Fortress in the trees
Will not support our weight, but on our knees…
… we still might fit inside those splendid hours
Of damsels in distress, of rustic towers…
… of voices of the wolves’ tormented howls
That died, and live in dreams’ soft, windy vowels…
Originally published by Sonnet Scroll
Similar poems:
- To Flower When Pentheus [“grief’] went into the mountains in the garb of the baccae, his mother [Agave] and the other maenads, […]...
- At Wilfred Owen’s Grave A week before the Armistice, you died. They did not keep your heart like Livingstone’s, Then plant your bones near […]...
- Because Her Heart Is Tender, for Beth She scrawled soft words in soap: “Never Forget,” Dove-white on her car’s window, and the wren, Because her heart is […]...
- The Forge To at last be indestructible, a poem Must first glow, almost flammable, upon A thing inert, as gray, as dull […]...
- In Flight Convergence Serene, almost angelic, The lights of the city attend Upon lumbering behemoths Shrilly screeching displeasure; they say That nothing is […]...
- Water and Gold You came to me as rain breaks on the desert When every flower springs to life at once, But joy […]...
- Cleansings Walk here among the walking scepters. Learn Inhuman patience. Flesh can only cleave To bone this tightly if their hearts […]...
- Auschwitz Rose There is a Rose at Auschwitz, in the briar, A rose like Sharon’s, lovely as her name. The world forgot […]...
- The Locker All the dull hollow clamor has died And what was contained, Removed, Reproved Adulation or sentiment, Left with the pungent […]...
- See See how her hair has thinned: it does not seem / Like hair at all, but like the airy moult […]...
- In Praise of Meter The earth is full of rhythms so precise The octave of the crystal can produce A trillion oscillations, yet not […]...
- She Gathered Lilacs, for Beth She gathered lilacs And arrayed them in her hair; Tonight, she taught the wind to be free. She kept her […]...
- Charon 2004 I, too, have stood paralyzed at the helm Watching onrushing, inevitable disaster. I too have felt sweat (or ecstatic tears) […]...
- She Was Very Strange, and Beautiful She was very strange, and beautiful, as the violet mist upon the hills before night falls when the hoot owl […]...
- A True Story, for Jeremy Jeremy hit the ball today, Over the fence and far away. So very, very far away A neighbor had to […]...
- Excerpts from “Poetry” Poetry, I found you Where at last they chained and bound you; With devices all around you To torture and […]...
- The Peripheries of Love Through waning afternoons we glide The watery peripheries of love. A silence, a quietude falls. Above us–the sagging pavilions of […]...
- The Desk, for Jeremy There is a child I used to know Who sat, perhaps, at this same desk Where you sit now, and […]...
- The Watch Moonlight spills down vacant sills, Illuminates an empty bed. Dreams lie in crates. One hand creates Wan silver circles, left […]...
- Rainbow (II) You made us hopeful, LORD; where is your Hope When every lovely Rainbow bright and chill Reflects your Will? You […]...
- Redolence Now darkness ponds upon the violet hills; Cicadas sing; the tall elms gently sway; And night bends near, a deepening […]...
- Mother’s Smile For my wife, Elizabeth Harris Burch, and my mother, Christine Ena Burch There never was a fonder smile Than mother’s […]...
- Memory A black ringlet Curls to lie At the nape of her neck, Glistening with sweat In the evaporate moonlight… This […]...
- Discrimination The meter I had sought to find, perplexed, Was ripped from books of “verse” that read like prose. I found […]...
- Fahr an’ Ice, Apologies to Robert Frost From what I know of death, I’ll side with those Who’d like to have a say in how it goes: […]...
- Flight 93 I held the switch in trembling fingers, asked Why existence felt so small, so purposeless, Like a minnow wriggling feebly […]...
- The Octopi Jars Long-vacant eyes Now lodged in clear glass, A-swim with pale arms As delicate as angels’ … You are beyond all […]...
- Will There Be Starlight Will there be starlight Tonight While she gathers Damask And lilac And sweet-scented heathers? And will she find flowers, Or […]...
- Tremble Her predatory eye, The single feral iris, Scans. Her raptor beak, All jagged sharp-edged thrust, Juts. Her hard talon, Clenched […]...
- Ordinary Love Indescribable our love and still we say With eyes averted, turning out the light, “I love you,” in the ordinary […]...