Lyric night of the lingering Indian Summer,

And her laughter is thistledownAround her low replies.’‘Is she unhappy?’ you said–But who has ever knownAnother’s heartbreak–All he can know is his own;And she seems hushed to me,As hushed as thoughHer heart were a hunter’s fireSmothered in snow.

And all her rigging one vast golden lyre,For winds to play on to the ocean’s rhymeOf wave on wave forever singing low.She floated on a web of burnished gold,And in such light as praying men beholdCling round a vision, were her sails aglow.I saw her come again when dawn was grey,Her wonder faded and her…

Into the corridor, brilliant and warm.A metal door slides open,And the lift receives us.Swiftly, with sharp unswerving flightThe car shoots upward,And the air, swirling and angry,Howls like a hundred devils.Past the maze of trim bronze doors,Steadily we ascend.I cling to youConscious of the chasm under us,And a terrible whirring deafens my ears.The flight is ended.We…

It will awake him in the night,It will enfold him in the air.I set my shadow in his sightAnd I have winged it with desire,That it may be a cloud by dayAnd in the night a shaft of fire.

Ungarlanded of vine,Undyed by dripping wine,I brought green bay to twine,And prayed to her, almighty, —And lo, the prayer of mineWas heard of Aphrodite.I sang of answered prayer,And now before the goddess,The maids lay flowers rare,And she has ceased to careFor bay that I might bear.To heal my heart’s distress,My feet must wander whereThere waits…

Their branches tinkle faintlyWith crystal melodies.The larches bend their silverOver the hush of snow;One star is lighted in the west,Two in the zenith glow.For a moment I have forgottenWars and women who mourn—I think of the mother who bore meAnd thank her that I was born.

I take the low path to hear the meadowlarksAlone and high-hearted as if I were a queen.What have I to fear in life or deathWho have known three things: the kiss in the night,The white flying joy when a song is born,And meadowlarks whistling in silver light.

How many times I saw my western cityDream by her river.Then for an hour the water wore a mantleOf tawny gold and mauve and misted turquoiseUnder the tall and darkened arches bearingGray, high-flung bridges.Against the sunset, water-towers and steeplesFlickered with fire up the slope to westward,And old warehouses poured their purple shadowsAcross the levee.High over…

In Nazareth;There fell no rain to ease the heat,And dusk drew on with tired feetAnd stifled breath.The shop was low and hot and square,And fresh-cut wood made sharp the air,While all day longThe saw went tearing thru the oakThat moaned as tho’ the tree’s heart brokeBeneath its wrong.The narrow street was full of cries,Of bickering…

Keen as pain was his call to followOver the world to you.Love in my heart is a cry foreverLost as the swallow’s flight,Seeking for you and never, neverStilled by the stars at night.

Behind us as we walked along the parkway,Our shadows danced,Fantastic shapes in vivid blue.Across the lake the skatersFlew to and fro,With sharp turns weavingA frail invisible net.In ecstacy the earthDrank the silver sunlight;In ecstacy the skatersDrank the wine of speed;In ecstacy we laughedDrinking the wine of love.Had not the music of our joySounded its highest…

You work no miracle for meNor I for you.You were the wind and I the sea –There is no splendor any more,I have grown listless as the poolBeside the shore.But though the pool is safe from stormAnd from the tide has found surcease,It grows more bitter than the sea,For all its peace.