Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, FOR FEDERICO GARCIA LORCA, by DOROTHY LIVESAY


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

FOR FEDERICO GARCIA LORCA, by             Poem Explanation         Poet's Biography
First Line: When veins congeal
Last Line: The unassailed, the token!
Subject(s): Death; Garcia Lorca, Federico (1898-1936); Nature; Dead, The


When veins congeal
And gesture is confounded
When pucker frowns no more
And voice's door
Is shut forever

On such a night
My bed will shrink
To single size
Sheets go cold
The heart hammer
With life-loud clamor
While someone covers up the eyes.

Ears are given
To hear the silence driven in
Nailed down.
And we descend now down from heaven
Into earth's mould, down.

While you—
You hold the light
Unbroken.

When you lived
Day shone from your face
Now the sun rays search
And find no answering torch.

If you were living now
This cliffside tree
With its embracing bough
Would speak to me.

If you were speaking now
The waves below
Would be the organ stops
For breath to blow.

And if your rigid head
Flung back its hair
Gulls in a sickle flight
Would circle there.

You make the flight
Unshaken.

You are alive!
O grass flash emerald sight
Dash of dog for ball
And skipping rope's bright blink
Lashing the light!

High in cloud
The sunset fruits are basketed
And fountains curl their plumes
On statue stone.
In secret thicket mould
Lovers defend their hold
Old couples hearing whisperings
Touch in a handclasp, quivering.

For you sang out aloud
Arching the silent wood
To stretch itself, tiptoe,
Above the crowd. ...

You hold the word
Unspoken.

You breathe. You be!
Bare, stripped light
Time's fragment flagged
Against the dark.

You dance. Explode
Unchallenged through the door
As bullets burst
Long deaths ago, your breast.

And song outsoars
The bomber's range
Serene with wind-
Maneuvered cloud.

Light flight and word
The unassailed, the token!





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