from the west like Ceasers jaw
the snarling grey wind
has broken our sea
to a screaming chatter of gulls
the land
to a mist of slow falling trees
the sky
to a machine of spinning by wheels
and the rivers too cold
for a lifetime of dreams
like stone… Read the rest

dear lady watch dove
vaguely watching
for a soft walking
between the loud wars
it cannot be now,
no more than your
flowered carpets of peace
brave from the opiates bloom
on the night thinkers cowl,
for the moons elbow
has formed his curved tooth
in the barren caves
of … Read the rest

come Autumn scarecrows
and chance on me
dance on me
ere the winters blood
is spread on me
and the hireling days
of dark and grave
are sleeting
all their rains on me
chains on me
this loud mornings gale
breaks on me
and the softly broken
feet of summer… Read the rest

see how frantically

the coppered ants of time

rushing on rims of fire

scramble over your blazoned tiles

stacked like forgotten hymn books

running onto the bridge way

of your stained harsh windows

telling how gladly the giant topaz

has found his soul today

though trapped and bleeding

in the … Read the rest

locked as tides are

into the hollow

of your body’s quiet

my poems shadow

rising and falling

line for line

in naked form

my loves shadow

as the child

and bright star resting

I find with you

my souls shadow

now more real to me

than all my verse

my … Read the rest

seen on this one day
of the short day
the first frost
of savage men
a laying on my hands
and laughing
at the near night
of demon eyed willows
dancing on pyres
of secluded dreams
echoed and gone,
echoed and gone
fleeing before
the black almond
crossed men
marching … Read the rest

and there never was a measure

to say my distance from the world

so far was I from believing

from completeness, from everything

but now I have me a beautiful measure

and my distance is no more than

the light before your smile

as the sun before the day

or … Read the rest

now winding me around this
thin edge of sorrow
the long beauty
of this earth and its song
of continual dying
heard from the hard
falling of the dark
to the easy forgiving
of the light which in one fine
mornings whisper
begat the first shell sounding
sea sounding
from … Read the rest

wherever the line in pure light falls

reed upon reed

rush upon rush

for all the young women

flowing green

in their young moment

turning soft treasures

for faceless kings

and the keyless majesty

of their loaning beds

now going, going, gone away

whenever the line in pure light falls.… Read the rest

Lord the river has come

to this house

and the grass

no longer grows

beside the gravel path

too many feet

have come this way

to find the river

but this house

cannot keep them

so please

take your river

to another path

and let me be

to imagine

and … Read the rest