Nancy

How dreadful the black wastes of evening sky,How dreadful the tall soldiers drumming by.But we have speech, to chill the angry day,And speech, to dull the rose’s cruel scent.We spell away the overhanging night,We spell away the soldiers and the fright.There’s a cool web of language winds us in,Retreat from too much joy or too…

Not so much Sun.’But the Sun smiles bravely and encouragingly,And no rain falls and no waters run.‘Give us Peace, Peace,’ said the peoples oppressed,‘Not so many Flags,Not so many Flags.’But the Flags fly and the Drums beat, denying rest,And the children starve, they shiver in rags.

But sweeter far as wise men knowSpring from the woodland vine.No need for bowl or silver spoon,Sugar or spice or cream,Has the wild berry plucked in JuneBeside the trickling stream.One such to melt at the tongue’s root,Confounding taste with scent,Beats a full peck of garden fruit:Which points my argument.May sudden justice overtakeAnd snap the froward…

And lay ghost hands on everything,But leave the noonday’s warm sunshineTo living lads for mirth and wine.I met you suddenly down the street,Strangers assume your phantom faces,You grin at me from daylight places,Dead, long dead, I’m ashamed to greetDead men down the morning street.

Choose from the clouded tales of wrongAnd terror I bring to you.Of a night so torn with cries,Honest men sleepingStart awake with glaring eyes,Bone-chilled, flesh creeping.Of spirits in the web hung roomUp above the stable,Groans, knockings in the gloom,The dancing table.Of demons in the dry wellThat cheep and mutter,Clanging of an unseen bell,Blood choking the…

Who swears he met with God in dreamsOr face to face in woods and streams,Meshed in their boundaries.‘Has been’ and ‘is’ the seasons bind,(Here glut of bread, there lack of bread).The mill-stones grumble as they grindThat if God is, he must be blind,Or if he was, is dead.Can God with Danae sport and kiss,Or God…