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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


ALTERNATIVE by CHARLES TORY BRUCE

First Line: IMMEDIATES? WELL WE HAVE BIRTH AND SICKNESS AND DEATH
Last Line: THERE IS VIRTUE, TOO, IN A GRAY AND DRAGONISH SEA.
Subject(s): LIFE;

Immediates? Well we have birth and sickness and death,
And hunger for whispering water and good white bread.
Immediates? Fireside warmth and a caught breath
At flowering stars, and a friendly body in bed.

There are times when the eye of the spirit can see it all,
But voice and pencil are never enough to enrich
The man next door with a flame. They are only a scrawl
On the edge of a picture, one note on the pipes, one stitch

In a seam so woven that fabric and thread are one.
It is good to look at this hour and then set free
Protest and studied invective; granted and done;
There is virtue, too, in a gray and dragonish sea.



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