Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, HALOS, by ALFRED FRANCIS KREYMBORG


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

HALOS, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Four tiny folk
Last Line: And less lonely.
Variant Title(s): Less Lonely
Subject(s): Books; Dwarfs; Hats; Reading


Four tiny folk,
hardly bigger than gnomes,
but as chipper as gnomes --
though their faces were pale,
their eyes pale blue,
their hair pale gold --
and their carriage grave,
their clothes
improvised remnants
of days that were dresses --
wooden clogs for shoes,
darned cord for stockings,
yellow twine for garters --
and under each grasshopper arm,
a load
and a load
and a load
and a load of books --
two ahead and two behind
or four abreast,
four tiny gnomes
on their way to school
or back from school --
trees nodding overhead,
lanes ambling underfoot,
and Italy rolling everywhere --
lazy heads,
sleepy veins,
dreamy voices
chanting in unison --
dieci per uno dieci
dieci per due venti
dieci per tre trenta --
carried an echo,
a dim echo,
a thin small voice,
a timid voice,
from the distances
over the mountains,
across the sea,
beyond the horizon,
behind the years --
ten times one are ten,
ten times two are twenty,
ten times three --
only I
was never quite able to go
so carelessly,
nor so musically --
and each of them
wore a halo,
or a necklace,
or a bracelet
of blue-bearded
violets --
while I
used to wear a cap,
a dizzy New York cap,
and the town on top of me,
houses on my head,
streets across my back,
down my arms and my legs --
moving along alone,
with crowded, jostling things inside
wondering -- pondering
what was to come,
and whether to-morrow,
or the next day,
or possibly the day after,
or surely the day after that
would be lighter
and bluer
and easier --
and less lonely.





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