Poems

By The Lake ACROSS the flat and the pastel snow Two people go . . . . ‘And do you remember When last we wandered this […]

Came the Great Popinjay CAME the great Popinjay Smelling his nosegay: In cages like grots The birds sang gavottes. ‘Herodiade’s flea Was named sweet Amanda, She […]

Clowns’ Houses BENEATH the flat and paper sky The sun, a demon’s eye, Glowed through the air, that mask of glass; All wand’ring sounds that pass […]

Four in the Morning Cried the navy-blue ghost Of Mr. Belaker The allegro Negro cocktail-shaker, “Why did the cock crow, Why am I lost, Down the […]

Portrait of a Barmaid Metallic waves of people jar Through crackling green toward the bar Where on the tables chattering-white The sharp drinks quarrel with the […]

Solo for Ear-Trumpet The carriage brushes through the bright Leaves (violent jets from life to light); Strong polished speed is plunging, heaves Between the showers of […]

Still Falls the Rain Still falls the Rain— Dark as the world of man, black as our loss— Blind as the nineteen hundred and forty nails […]

The Fan LOVELY Semiramis Closes her slanting eyes: Dead is she long ago. From her fan, sliding slow, Parrot-bright fire’s feathers, Gilded as June weathers, Plumes […]

The Lady with the Sewing-Machine Across the fields as green as spinach, Cropped as close as Time to Greenwich, Stands a high house; if at all, […]

When Cold December WHEN cold December Froze to grisamber The jangling bells on the sweet rose-trees– Then fading slow And furred is the snow As the […]