Precipitations | Page 7

blossom

(Tomorrow perhaps)
Into flowers of the wind.
MONOCHROME
Gray water,
Gray sky drifting down to the sea.
The night,
Old,
ugly, and stern,
Lies upon the water,
Quivering in the twilight

Like a tortured belly.
ANTIQUE
Clouds flung back
Make fan-shaped rays of faded crimson

Brocaded on dim blue satin;
Through the wrinkled dust-blue water

The little boat
Glides above its sunken shadow.
ECHO LOOKS AT HERSELF
The ship passes in the night
And drags jagged reflections
Like

gilded combs
Through the obscure water.
Spun glass daisies float
on a gold-washed mirror.
SPELL
In the dark I can hear the patter.
Bare white feet are running across
the water.
White feet as bright as silver
Are flashing under dull blue
dresses.
Wet palms beat,
Impatiently,
Petulantly,
Slapping the
wet rocks.
HUNGRY SHADOWS
RAINY TWILIGHT
Dim gold faces float in the windows.
Dim gold faces and gilded
arms...
They are clinging along the silver ladders of rain;
They are
climbing with ivory lamps held high,
Starry lamps
Over which the
silver ladders
Thicken into nets of twilight.
THE STORM
Herds of black elephants,
Rushing over the plains,
Trample the
stars.
The ivory tusk of the leader
(Or is it the moon?)
Flashes,
and is gone.
Tree tops bend;
Crash;
Fire from hoofs;
And still
they rush on,
Trampling the stars,
Bellowing,
Roaring.
NYMPHS
The drift of shadows on the mountainside,
Blue and purple gold!

Purple dust sifting through fingers of ivory:
Cool purple on ivory
breasts.
I see arms and breasts,
Upturned chins,
Slanting through
the dust of purple leaves:
Ivory and gold,
Bare breasts and laughing
eyes,
That drift on the shadowy surf

And surge against the side of
the mountain.
WINTER DAWN

Cloudy dawn flower unfolds;
Moon moth gyrates slowly;
Snow
maiden lets down her hair,
And in one shining silence,
It slips to
earth.
THE WALL OF NIGHT
SPRINGTIME TOO SOON
The moon is a cool rose in a blue bowl.
There are no more birds.

The last leaf has fallen.
The trees in the twilight are naked old
women.
The moon is an old woman at the door of her tomb.
Clouds combed
out in the wind
Are gray hair she has wound about her neck.
The
water is an old gray face that mirrors the springtime.
STARS
Like naked maidens
Dancing with no thought of lovers,
Blinking
stars with dewy silver breasts
Pass through the darkness.
White and
eager,
They glide on
Toward the gray meshed web of dawn
And the mystery of morning.
Then,
About me,
The white cloud
walls
Stand as sternly as sepulchers,
And from all sides
Peer and
linger the startled faces,
Pale in the harshness of the sunlight.
NIGHT MUSIC
Through the blue water of night
Rises the white bubble of silence--

Rises,
And breaks:
The shivered crystal bell of the moon,
Dying
away in star splinters.
The still mists bear the sound
Beyond the
horizon.
NOCTURNE OF WATER
A shining bird plunges to the deep,
Becomes entangled with seaweed,


And never more emerges.
Pale golden feathers drift across the sky,

Fire feathered clouds,
Riding the weightless billows of back velvet

On the horizon.
THE LONG MOMENT
A white sigh clouds the fields
Into quietness.
Above the billowed
snow
I drift,
One year,
Two years,
Three years.
Hurt eyes mist
in the blue behind me.
The moon uncoils in glistening ropes
And I
glide downward along the dripping rays
To a marble lake.
DESIGNS
I
Night
Fields of black tulips
And swarms of gold bees
Drinking their bitter
honey.
II
New Moon
Above the gnarled old tree
That clings to the bleakest side of the
mountain,
A torch of ivory and gold;
And across the sky,
The
silver print
Of spirit feet,
Fled from the wonder.
III
Tropic Moon
The glowing anvil,
Beaten by the winds;
Star sparks,
Burning and
dying in the heavens;
The furnace glare
Red
On the polished palm
leaves.
IV

Winter Moon
A little white thistle moon
Blown over the cold crags and fens:
A
little white thistle moon
Blown across the frozen heather.
ARGO
White sails
Unbillowed by any wind,
The moon ship,
Among
shoals of cloud,
Stranded stars,
Bare bosoms,
And netted hair of
light,
On the shores of the world.
JAPANESE MOON
Thick clustered wistaria clouds,
A young girl moon in a mist of
almond flowers,
Boughs and boughs of light;
Then a round-faced
ivory lady
Nodding among fading chrysanthemums.
HOT MOON
Moon rise.
Great gong sounds, shining--
Little feet run away.

Loud and solemn, the funeral gong.
Little feet run away.
THE NAIAD
The moon rises,
Glistening,
Naked white,
Out of her stream.
Wet marble shoulders
Shake star drops on the clouds.
FLOODTIDE
Across the shadows of the surf
The lights of the ship
Twinkle
despondently.
The clinging absorbent gray darkness
Sucks them
into itself:
Drinks the pale golden tears greedily.
MOUNTAIN PASS IN AUGUST
Night scatters grapes for the harvest.
The moon burns like a leaf.


Along the mountain path
A thin streak of light
Creeps hungrily with
its silver belly to the earth.
The old hound laps up the shadows.
Her
teats drip the brighter darkness.
CONTEMPORARIES
HARMONICS
YOUNG MEN
Fauns,
Eternal pagans,
Beautiful and obscene,
Leaping through
the street
With a flicker of hoofs,
And a flash of tails,
You want dryads
And they give you prostitutes.
YOUNG GIRLS
Your souls are wet flowers,
Bathed in kisses and blood.
Golden
Clyties,
The wheel of light
Rushes over your breasts.
HOUSE SPIRITS
Women are flitting around in their shells.
Pale dilutions of the waters
of the world
Come through the windows.
Back and forth the
women glide in their little waters;
Cellar to garret and garret to cellar,

Winding in and out under door arches and down passages,
They
and their spawn,
In the shell,
In