This girl gave her heart to me,

She, all in yellow, like a buttercup,Lifts her white face, yearns up to him, and clings;And with a silent, gliding step they moveOver the footlights, in familiar glare,Panther-like in the Tango whirl of love,He fawning close on her with idiot stare.Swiftly they cross the stage. O lyric ease!The drunken music follows the sure feet,The swaying…

You strike a match and stare upon the flame.The tiny fire leaps in your eyes a moment,And dwindles away as silently as it came.This melody, you say, has certain voices—They rise like nereids from a river, singing,Lift white faces, and dive to darkness again.Wherever you go you bear this river with you:A leaf falls,—and it…

And lights wink out through the windows, one by one.A clamor of frosty sirens mourns at the night.Pale slate-grey clouds whirl up from the sunken sun.And the wandering one, the inquisitive dreamer of dreams,The eternal asker of answers, stands in the street,And lifts his palms for the first cold ghost of rain.The purple lights leap…

The trees in the park exhale a ghost of rain;We go from door to door in the streets again,Talking, laughing, dreaming, turning our faces,Recalling other times and places . . .We crowd, not knowing why, around a gate,We crowd together and wait,A stretcher is carried out, voices are stilled,The ambulance drives away.We watch its roof…

And sees the advancing curtain of the showerSplashing its silver on roofs and walls:Sees how, swift as a shadow, it crosses the city,And murmurs beyond far walls to the sea,Leaving a glimmer of water in the dark canyons,And silver falling from eave and tree.One, from his high bright window, looking down,Peers like a dreamer over…

Deep worlds you lived before,—deep worlds hereafterOf leaf on falling leaf, music on music,Rain and sorrow and wind and dust and laughter.Helen was late and Miriam came too soon.Joseph was dead, his wife and children starving.Elaine was married and soon to have a child.You dreamed last night of fiddler-crabs with fiddles;They played a buzzing melody,…