Chapter M: B. 25

TRACT 26

PROMENADE 29

EL HOMBRE 31

HERO 31

LIBERTAD! IGUALDAD! FRATERNIDAD! 32

CANTHARA 33

MUJER 33

SUMMER SONG 34

LOVE SONG 35

FOREIGN 35

A PRELUDE 36

HISTORY 37

WINTER QUIET 42

DAWN 42

GOOD NIGHT 43

DANSE RUSSE 44

PORTRAIT OF A WOMAN IN BED 45

VIRTUE 47

CONQUEST 49

PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG MAN WITH A BAD HEART 49

KELLER GEGEN DOM 50

SMELL 52

BALLET 52

SYMPATHETIC PORTRAIT OF A CHILD 54

THE OGRE 55

RIPOSTE 56

THE OLD MEN 57

PASTORAL 57

SPRING STRAINS 58

TREES 59

A PORTRAIT IN GREYS 60

INVITATION 61

DIVERTIMIENTO 62

JANUARY MORNING 62

TO A SOLITARY DISCIPLE 67

DEDICATION FOR A PLOT OF GROUND 69

K. MCB. 70

LOVE SONG 71

THE WANDERER 75

AL QUE QUIERE!

SUB TERRA

Where shall I find you,
you my grotesque fellows
that I seek everywhere
to make up my band?
None, not one
with the earthy tastes I require;
the burrowing pride that rises
subtly as on a bush in May.

Where are you this day,
you my seven year locusts
with cased wings?
Ah my beauties how I long--!
That harvest
that shall be your advent--
thrusting up through the grass,
up under the weeds
answering me,
_that_ shall be satisfying!
The light shall leap and snap
that day as with a million lashes!

Oh, I have you; yes
you are about me in a sense:
playing under the blue pools
that are my windows,--
but they shut you out still,
there in the half light.

For the simple truth is
that though I see you clear enough
you are not there!

It is not that--it is you,
you I want!

--God, if I could fathom
the guts of shadows!

You to come with me
poking into negro houses
with their gloom and smell!
In among children
leaping around a dead dog!
Mimicking
onto the lawns of the rich!
You!
to go with me a-tip-toe,
head down under heaven,
nostrils lipping the wind!

PASTORAL

When I was younger
it was plain to me
I must make something of myself.
Older now
I walk back streets
admiring the houses
of the very poor:
roof out of line with sides
the yards cluttered
with old chicken wire, ashes,
furniture gone wrong;
the fences and outhouses
built of barrel-staves
and parts of boxes, all,
if I am fortunate,
smeared a bluish green
that properly weathered
pleases me best
of all colors.

No one
will believe this
of vast import to the nation.

CHICKORY AND DAISIES

I.

Lift your flowers
on bitter stems
chickory!
Lift them up
out of the scorched ground!
Bear no foliage
but give yourself
wholly to that!

Strain under them
you bitter stems
that no beast eats--
and scorn greyness!
Into the heat with them:
cool!
luxuriant! sky-blue!
The earth cracks and
is shriveled up;
the wind moans piteously;
the sky goes out
if you should fail.