The elephant to couple in peace, the porpoise to be free of the microphone; this page to know a master, a future, a page with the flesh melodious, to bring her up through the page, paper-shrouded, from whatever depth she lies, dulling her gift, bringing her to song and not to life. ̺ ̺ ̺ This death mask to harden before the face escapes, life passes down through the neck -- the sculptor turns hearing it rub against the door. ̺ ̺ ̺ Mind to stay free of madness, of war; war all howling and stiff-necked dead, night of mind punctuated with moans and stars, black smoke moiling, puling mind striped as a zebra, ass in air madly stalking her lion. ̺ ̺ ̺ Fire to eat tar, tar to drip, hare to beat hound grouse to avoid shot trout to shake fly chest to draw breath breath to force song, a song to be heard, remembered and sung. ̺ ̺ ̺ To come to an opening in a field without pausing, to move there in a full circle of light; but night's out there not even behind the glass -- there's nothing to keep her out or in; to walk backward to her, to step off her edge or become her edge, to swell and roll in her darkness, a landlocked sea moving free -- dark and clear within her continent. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THEY ACCUSE ME OF NOT TALKING by HAYDEN CARRUTH VIGNETTES OVERSEAS: 3. NAPLES by SARA TEASDALE A LINE-STORM SONG by ROBERT FROST ONCE BY THE PACIFIC by ROBERT FROST GREAT BELL ROLAND; SUGGESTED BY PRESIDENT'S CALL VOLUNTEERS by THEODORE TILTON TO MYRTILLA OF NEW YORK by FRANKLIN PIERCE ADAMS SEVEN SAD SONNETS: 2. THE OTHER ONE COMES TO HER by MARY REYNOLDS ALDIS NO SONGS IN WINTER by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH SONNETS FROM THE PORTUGUESE: 37 by ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING |