Though naught but smoke and flame and drowning is seen.
Lady of Light, speak, though you speak alone,
Though your voice may seem as a dove’s in this howling flood,
It is heard to-night by every senate and throne.
Though the widening battle of millions and millions of men
Threatens to-night to sweep the whole of the earth,
Back of the smoke is the promise of kindness again.
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Part I.A Short Walk Along the Coast
And the rivers there are blue and white.Thunderclouds of grapes hang on the mountains.Bears in the meadows pitch and fight.(Limber, double- jointed lords of fate,Proud native sons of the Golden Gate.)And flowers burst like bombs in California,Exploding on tomb and tower.And the panther-cats chase the red rabbits,Scatter their young blood every hour.And the cattle on…
Last night at black midnight I woke with a cry,
The floor was a-tremble, the door was a-jar,White fires, crimson fires, shone from afar.I rushed to the door yard. The city was gone.My home was a hut without orchard or lawn.It was mud-smear and logs near a whispering stream,Nothing else built by man could I see in my dream…Then…Ghost-kings came headlong, row upon row,Gods of…
We are the smirched. Queen Honor is the spotless.
We were faint-hearted. Honor was full-valiant.We kept a silence Honor could not keep.Yet this late day we make a song to praise her.We, codeless, will yet vindicate her code.She who was mighty, walks with us, the beggars.The merchants drive her out upon the road.She makes a throne of sod beside our campfire.We give the maiden-queen…
The moon’s a holy owl-queen.
Under her arm till evening,Then sallies forth to war.She pours the owls upon us.They hoot with horrid noiseAnd eat the naughty mousie-girlsAnd wicked mousie-boys.So climb the moonvine every nightAnd to the owl-queen pray:Leave good green cheese by moonlit treesFor her to take away.And never squeak, my children,Nor gnaw the smoke-house door:The owl-queen then will love…
Your dust will be upon the wind
Though you be sealed in lead to-dayAmid the country’s tears.When this idyllic churchyardBecomes the heart of town,The place to build garage or inn,They’ll throw your tombstone down.Your name so dim, so long outworn,Your bones so near to earth,Your sturdy kindred dead and gone,How should men know your worth?So read upon the runic moonMan’s epitaph, deep-writ.It…
Sometimes we remember kisses,
Not always, but sometimes we rememberThe kindness, the dumbness, the good flameOf laughter and farewell.Beside the roadAfar from those who said ‘Good-by’ I write,Far from my city task, my lawful load.Sun in my face, wind beside my shoulder,Streaming clouds, banners of new-born nightEnchant me now. The splendors growing bolderMake bold my soul for some new…