Proof to No Purpose

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1. I'd rather recollect a setting I’d rather recollect a setting Than own a rising sun Though one is beautiful forgetting And true the other one. Because in going is a Drama Staying cannot confer To die divinely once a Twilight Than wane is easier...
2. Sandpiper The roaring alongside he takes for granted, And that every so often the world is bound to shake. He runs, he runs to the south, finical, awkward, In a state of controlled panic, a student of Blake. The beach hisses like fat. On his left, a sheet Of interrupting water comes and goes And glazes […]...
3. The first Day that I was a Life The first Day that I was a Life I recollect it How still That last Day that I was a Life I recollect it as well ‘Twas stiller though the first Was still “Twas empty but the first Was full This was my finallest Occasion But then My tenderer Experiment Toward Men “Which choose I”? […]...
4. Solidarity Song Peoples of the world, together Join to serve the common cause! So it feeds us all for ever See to it that it’s now yours. Forward, without forgetting Where our strength can be seen now to be! When starving or when eating Forward, not forgetting Our solidarity! Black or white or brown or yellow Leave […]...
5. When I hoped, I recollect When I hoped, I recollect Just the place I stood At a Window facing West Roughest Air was good Not a Sleet could bite me Not a frost could cool Hope it was that kept me warm Not Merino shawl When I feared I recollect Just the Day it was Worlds were lying out to […]...
6. I stood musing in a black world I stood musing in a black world, Not knowing where to direct my feet. And I saw the quick stream of men Pouring ceaselessly, Filled with eager faces, A torrent of desire. I called to them, “Where do you go? What do you see?” A thousand voices called to me. A thousand fingers pointed. “Look! […]...
7. PROVERBS ‘TIS easier far a wreath to bind, Than a good owner fort to find. I KILL’D a thousand flies overnight, Yet was waken’d by one, as soon as twas light. To the mother I give; For the daughter I live. A BREACH is every day, By many a mortal storm’d; Let them fall in the […]...
8. Comfort DARK head by the fireside brooding, Where upon your ears Whirlwinds of the earth intruding Sound in wrath and tears: Tender-hearted, in your lonely Sorrow I would fain Comfort you, and say that only Gods could feel such pain. Only spirits know such longing For the far away; And the fiery fancies thronging Rise not […]...
9. DOUBLE VILLANELLE I. O goat-foot God of Arcady! This modern world is grey and old, And what remains to us of thee? No more the shepherd lads in glee Throw apples at thy wattled fold, O goat-foot God of Arcady! Nor through the laurels can one see Thy soft brown limbs, thy beard of gold And what […]...
10. Psalm 46 part 1 The church’s safety and triumph among national desolation. God is the refuge of his saints, When storms of sharp distress invade Ere we can offer our complaints, Behold him present with his aid. Let mountains from their seats be hurled Down to the deep, and buried there, Convulsions shake the solid world, Our faith shall […]...
11. 16-bit Intel 8088 chip with an Apple Macintosh You can’t run Radio Shack programs In its disc drive. Nor can a Commodore 64 Drive read a file You have created on an IBM Personal Computer. Both Kaypro and Osborne computers use The CP/M operating system But can’t read each other’s Handwriting For they format (write On) discs in different […]...
12. Thanksgiving (For John Bunker) The roar of the world is in my ears. Thank God for the roar of the world! Thank God for the mighty tide of fears Against me always hurled! Thank God for the bitter and ceaseless strife, And the sting of His chastening rod! Thank God for the stress and the pain […]...
13. Turn, O Libertad TURN, O Libertad, for the war is over, (From it and all henceforth expanding, doubting no more, resolute, sweeping the world,) Turn from lands retrospective, recording proofs of the past; From the singers that sing the trailing glories of the past; From the chants of the feudal world-the triumphs of kings, slavery, caste; Turn to […]...
14. The Pagan World In his cool hall, with haggard eyes, The Roman noble lay; He drove abroad, in furious guise, Along the Appian way. He made a feast, drank fierce and fast, And crowned his hair with flowers- No easier nor no quicker passed The impracticable hours. The brooding East with awe beheld Her impious younger world. The […]...
15. A Farewell Flow down, cold rivulet, to the sea, Thy tribute wave deliver: No more by thee my steps shall be, For ever and for ever. Flow, softly flow, by lawn and lea, A rivulet then a river: Nowhere by thee my steps shall be For ever and for ever. But here will sigh thine alder tree […]...
16. You'll love me yet!-and I can tarry You’ll love me yet!-and I can tarry Your love’s protracted growing: June reared that bunch of flowers you carry From seeds of April’s sowing. I plant a heartful now: some seed At least is sure to strike, And yield-what you’ll not pluck indeed, Not love, but, may be, like! You’ll look at least on love’s […]...
17. Reliance Not to the swift, the race: Not to the strong, the fight: Not to the righteous, perfect grace: Not to the wise, the light. But often faltering feet Come surest to the goal; And they who walk in darkness meet The sunrise of the soul. A thousand times by night The Syrian hosts have died; […]...
18. To Marianne Moore If the idea of immortality is excluded, There remains dust, Grass, Water that forms puddles, The branch from which the bird sings, A certain mystery that reason Supposes a fleeting shadow. There remains, in the end, life, The room where a woman pulls on her stockings, The other room, perhaps adjoining, Where a couple undress […]...
19. Dogfish Some kind of relaxed and beautiful thing Kept flickering in with the tide And looking around. Black as a fisherman’s boot, With a white belly. If you asked for a picture I would have to draw a smile Under the perfectly round eyes and above the chin, Which was rough As a thousand sharpened nails. […]...
20. This Little Bag This little bag I hope will prove To be not vainly made For, if you should a needle want It will afford you aid. And as we are about to part T’will serve another end, For when you look upon the Bag You’ll recollect your friend...
21. You'll find it when you try to die You’ll find it when you try to die The Easier to let go For recollecting such as went You could not spare you know. And though their places somewhat filled As did their Marble names With Moss they never grew so full You chose the newer names And when this World sets further back As […]...
22. THE WASSAIL Give way, give way, ye gates, and win An easy blessing to your bin And basket, by our entering in. May both with manchet stand replete; Your larders, too, so hung with meat, That though a thousand, thousand eat, Yet, ere twelve moons shall whirl about Their silv’ry spheres, there’s none may doubt But more’s […]...
23. The Chestnut Casts His Flambeaux The chestnut casts his flambeaux, and the flowers Stream from the hawthorn on the wind away, The doors clap to, the pane is blind with showers. Pass me the can, lad; there’s an end of May. There’s one spoilt spring to scant our mortal lot, One season ruined of your little store. May will be […]...
24. When We Are Old And These Rejoicing Veins When we are old and these rejoicing veins Are frosty channels to a muted stream, And out of all our burning their remains No feeblest spark to fire us, even in dream, This be our solace: that it was not said When we were young and warm and in our prime, Upon our couch we […]...
25. The Animals They do not live in the world, Are not in time and space. From birth to death hurled No word do they have, not one To plant a foot upon, Were never in any place. For with names the world was called Out of the empty air, With names was built and walled, Line and […]...
26. They won't frown always some sweet Day They won’t frown always some sweet Day When I forget to tease They’ll recollect how cold I looked And how I just said “Please.” Then They will hasten to the Door To call the little Girl Who cannot thank Them for the Ice That filled the lisping full....
27. The Kingfisher The kingfisher rises out of the black wave Like a blue flower, in his beak He carries a silver leaf. I think this is The prettiest world so long as you don’t mind A little dying, how could there be a day in your whole life That doesn’t have its splash of happiness? There are […]...
28. After-Thought I thought of Thee, my partner and my guide, As being past away. – Vain sympathies! For backward, Duddon! as I cast my eyes, I see what was, and is, and will abide; Still glides the Stream, and shall not cease to glide; The Form remains, the Function never dies; While we, the brave, the […]...
29. The Song Of The Mouth-Organ (With apologies to the singer of the “Song of the Banjo”.) I’m a homely little bit of tin and bone; I’m beloved by the Legion of the Lost; I haven’t got a “vox humana” tone, And a dime or two will satisfy my cost. I don’t attempt your high-falutin’ flights; I am more or less […]...
30. Epitaph On The World Here lies the body of this world, Whose soul alas to hell is hurled. This golden youth long since was past, Its silver manhood went as fast, An iron age drew on at last; ‘Tis vain its character to tell, The several fates which it befell, What year it died, when ’twill arise, We only […]...
31. Favrile Glassmakers, At century’s end, Compounded metallic lusters In reference To natural sheens (dragonfly And beetle wings, Marbled light on kerosene) And invented names As coolly lustrous As their products’ Scarab-gleam: Quetzal, Aurene, Favrile. Suggesting, Respectively, the glaze Of feathers, That sun-shot fog Of which halos Are composed, And what? What to make of Favrile, Tiffany’s […]...
32. Recollect the Face of me Recollect the Face of me When in thy Felicity, Due in Paradise today Guest of mine assuredly Other Courtesies have been Other Courtesy may be We commend ourselves to thee Paragon of Chivalry....
33. The Murmur of a Bee The Murmur of a Bee A Witchcraft yieldeth me If any ask me why ‘Twere easier to die Than tell The Red upon the Hill Taketh away my will If anybody sneer Take care for God is here That’s all. The Breaking of the Day Addeth to my Degree If any ask me how Artist […]...
34. Her smile was shaped like other smiles Her smile was shaped like other smiles The Dimples ran along And still it hurt you, as some Bird Did hoist herself, to sing, Then recollect a Ball, she got And hold upon the Twig, Convulsive, while the Music broke Like Beads among the Bog...
35. Private Eye To find clues where there are none, That’s my job now, I said to the Dictionary on my desk. The world beyond My window has grown illegible, And so has the clock on the wall. I may strike a match to orient myself In the meantime, there’s the heart Stopping hush as the building Empties, […]...
36. Nature sometimes sears a Sapling Nature sometimes sears a Sapling Sometimes scalps a Tree Her Green People recollect it When they do not die Fainter Leaves to Further Seasons Dumbly testify We who have the Souls Die oftener Not so vitally...
37. Let Love Go, If Go She Will LET love go, if go she will. Seek not, O fool, her wanton flight to stay. Of all she gives and takes away The best remains behind her still. The best remains behind; in vain Joy she may give and take again, Joy she may take and leave us pain, If yet she leave behind […]...
38. The Pekingese For a picture This Pekingese, that makes the sand-grains spin, Is digging little tunnels to Pekin: Dream him emerging in a porcelain cave Where wounded dragons stain a pearly wave....
39. Pain has an Element of Blank Pain has an Element of Blank It cannot recollect When it begun or if there were A time when it was not It has no Future but itself Its Infinite contain Its Past enlightened to perceive New Periods of Pain....
40. The World Some are the brothers of all humankind, And own them, whatsoever their estate; And some, for sorrow and self-scorn, are blind With enmity for man’s unguarded fate. For some there is a music all day long Like flutes in Paradise, they are so glad; And there is hell’s eternal under-song Of curses and the cries […]...