Leaving the splendid plaza and the esplanade -- The majestic facades of metropolitan unease -- Let us to the vast savannahs of despair Repair; and let us seek The panoramas of malaise, the continental anguish, The hysteria and the nausea of the villages. Somewhere -- perhaps where Omaha, like a disease, And the magnificent, brumal names of Fargo, of Kalamazoo, Infect the spirit with magnificent ennui -- A baroque splendor attends our small distress: We dress in the grand extravaganza of cafard. Still, there will come evenings without true discontent -- The sparrows loud in the dust and the crows gone cawing home To the little wood; the lights ending at the prairie, and -- As the divine and healing night comes down -- The town reeling, unreasonably content. In the one-horse town they have eaten the horse -- allons! But soft! Here are not only the megrims of small forms And the subliminal melancholy of the central square. Take care; for here you find An intermontane anguish in the wind that sings you home: Here is a false front distinguished as your own. And contentment is momentary in the villages. Used with the permission of Copper Canyon Press, P.O. Box 271, Port Townsend, WA 98368-0271, www.cc.press.org | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...REVAMPING THE VIRGIN by KAREN SWENSON APPRECIATION by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH PEACE; A STUDY by CHARLES STUART CALVERLEY TO HIS MISTRESS by ROBERT HERRICK A SHROPSHIRE LAD: 26 by ALFRED EDWARD HOUSMAN OLD BLACK MEN by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON |