Sonnets

SONNETS 1957-1960 and 1996-1997

Sonnet I The music of her eyes, her ecstasies
Of hair, her sparkle drawn from starry night
I love. Could I but be with her tonight
For all the world to fade beyond her eyes
Which meeting mine strum deep rich melodies.
I cannot live apart from her delight
Of sparkling eyes and dancing sway so light,
Her filling blush, soft raindrops in the skies.

Such love my dreams compose in song, portray
On fabric night, launch on imagined flight,
But with the dawn I shattered dreams survey.
Yet someday I shall charge the gods in spite
With firm placed feet and empires 'neath my sway
To yield her for eternal day and night. Sonnet II I saw a mark up in the sky, a star
Set flaming on the pyramid of hope,
Soft framed by graceful elms into our scope.
'Twas light celestial from our God afar
Down glancing to a place where still we are,
A shady place yet starlit on the slope
From this imperfect world through which we grope
Toward love with God in whom perfection's par.

I asked the keeper what he charged as toll
That I might offer you this star to wear
But he replied "You've got to sell your soul
And then you cannot give the star but share
In perfect love." My life's no longer whole
But now I place this star within your hair.

Sonnet III >You wrote a poem with your eyes. I heard
You say the raven landed on her nest,
Night wings cascading down in tenderness.
0 yes, I tried to see her youngling bird,
But as you uttered it the dun-winged word
Took flight. As dark-hued clouds flee dawn's caress,
She soared aloof and watching motionless
Bloomed large-eyed love while wings in panic whirred.
I must have been too crude. I guess that's why
when I exclaimed my brain was motionless
The raven and her poem fled your eye.
Too crude and garish letting "brain" express
Such fragile thought, and yet can one rely
On any word to tell the obvious? Sonnet IV Someday I shall return and lonely stand
Among these hallowed pillars and upon
These steps time worn by lovers long since gone.
Spring will have entered bearing as she'd planned
To bear long years before a fairyland
Of fragile leaf and fascinating faun.
And I'll have come to let myself be drawn
Into her hopes and led by her soft hand.

We talked of anything that night and showed
Our mouths in unintended speechless yawn.
She swam full-flowing in my arms and rode
My swelling tide like some full wind blown swan.
Afraid I fled from her and overflowed
My rushing heart upon the empty lawn.

Sonnet V I leapt into the morning of a night
To pluck the lowest leaf from heaven's tree
While little morning mists made eyes at me
And stationed cars played colored tunes wet-bright
Beneath the morning lamps of blue and white.
But then as it must always disagree
My rebel self cried there can never be
Another spell of magic first goodnight.

A second time I reached above my head
To grasp another leaf on toe-stretched height.
But I did not propel its living spread
Into a twirling arc of laughing light.
I rolled it to a fragrant ball instead
And pondered its reluctant dying plight. Sonnet VI I wonder what she thought about my sun
Just settling down upon his bedding cloud
Or if she even saw my joyous crowd
Of starlings mixing air and light for fun
In one last whirl before the day be done,
Oh could she sense my swelling organ proud
But lonely turning home from fields fresh plowed
And comrade day not so much gone as won.

But how can she reply from far inside
A speeding bus that's only just begun
To disappear upon its unknown ride?
I only saw her face turned toward my sun
As she rode past, yet still I would confide
In her my starlings, fields and settler sun.

Sonnet VII Down clanging tracks and past fast streaking light
With others on their isolating seats
We speed from garish crowds toward shadowed streets.
I hope to find you in the still warm night
And in your leafy quiet yard the slight
Impression of your patient form completes
My hope. But then my fearful self deletes
Your image with a flood of clashing fright.

We pick instead this bunch of night filled grapes
And hanging them between ourselves, we take
Communion in their bursting fluid shapes.
(Between your lips my fingers feel them break.)
But then there are no more and time undrapes
The night to stem and stalk and sad mistake. Sonnet VIII I took her dancing mere a crazy drum
Projected patterns of the frantic beat,
The cry of cha-cha and conflicting feet.
They started her dancing eyes but could not plumb
Her pensive brown-ensconced depths, nor hum
Her wisp of hair blown tune. Among the street
And stars and later night she kept discreet
Her subtle music, beautiful but dumb.

I tried to learn her special song but first
The noisy band and bright seducing throng
Then piercing stars or hostile wind would burst
That soft piped dream to which her notes belong.
Would God that someday I might be immersed
Alone in silence and her timeless song!

Sonnet IX I see her stand within her set of girl
Friends, planted in their guardian gaze, her foot-
Hold still back in that mystic childhood root
Of never leave. She blushes back the curl
Of smile my meaning looks she saw unfurl
And with her limber hand, to stay its shoot
of wanting to reply, she moves to put
Her eye away from just another churl.

I ever wishful wait for her to change
And longing linger near, but still too shy
We each hold out of touch another range.
Alas! It grows too late for me to try
The bold. For she is going to leave. How strange
We to each other yet so young must die. Sonnet X We come upon the highway ride of joy
And find ourselves among the heavy, dark
And passion holding night. Around our park
The night is sullen, black, and wet alloy
Of Wild unmanaged forests. Here the toy
Of childhood wonder drives its savage stark
And striking hot rod screaming to the mark
And plunges helpless to the deathlike cloy

Of afterwards. One cannot say goodbye
For all the good's gone buy, the price is paid,
And one cannot return. There is no cry Of don't forget. There is no word unsaid
Except perhaps an empty twitch of why?
O why? O why is nothing lasting made?
Sonnet XI The darkened living room was full of you
And me, an owl cut out from living stone
By some tormented artist inward grown,
And shelves of unread books still stiff as new,
Though fading from their once bright showcase hue.
There each to each, the books and us, alone,
Unread, the owl read. Each to each, unknown,
Unwed, you and I the owl knew.

Tell me Owl, was she beautiful?
Tell me Owl, did she she love me then?
Speak to me for I am pitiful
From having been alone with her again
And yet been blind and deaf, my ears stuffed full
Of stops, my eyes laid waste of any ken. Sonnet XII We acted as disinterested and free
From being involved within the play. We clapped
When time arrived to clap and sometimes tapped
Our fingers on the seat distractedly.
But then all time and trifling suddenly
Arose with circumstance and swept us wrapt
And blinded as a little twig entrapped
In foaming torrents raging to the sea.

We'd only met the night before and spoke
Of "How are things with you?" And as a thing
To say, I'd asked her (almost as a joke)
To see the play with me, not reckoning
Upon that sudden and unmiddling stroke:
That cry of Hamlet seeing "the play's the King."
Sonnet XIII My slow, soft, sad, beautiful song
Languid, lonely, limpid, lingers on
Between the slowly answering antiphon
Of darkened sky and buildings, and the gong
Of moon, sounding, sounding to prolong
The Agony, the sharp sWord drawn
aCross, splitting the sCreaming sky, withdrawn
Just as quickly to beautiful sad song.

I sing all night beneath your window sill.
I serenade the stars, the moon, the steet
And you. My songs are every flutey trill
And beauty thrill and anguish bittersweet
Of which I know. Please, please while still
I live, Come, Listen, I entreat. Sonnet XIV Now upon the first day of the weak
Very early in the mourning, they
Came to see their master took a way
That led them slowly from their hopeless, bleak
Sunless night toward an inchoate streak
Lighting, changing gthe Eastern sky fromn gray
Through bloody red to purest, whitest day,
Rising, Blooming, Risen, Reigning, meek-

ness. Thus to day the most forsaken be-
ing will, by virtue of its having done
nothing, by its very be-ing, free
from smell of right or wrong, just having fun,
Wax with joy and Springing ecstasy
The Flower of Love blooming in the Son.
Sonnet XV The drugstore booth was dirty and behind
Us laughter rose that made me want to leave
And take her someplace where I might perceive
Her deeply. But she spoke of God, defined,
It seemed, as "Who else had the world designed?"
I tried to say no logic could conceive
Of God. She smiled and asked, "Don't you believe
That anyone can read another's mind?"

Her meaning suddenly was too profound.
Before its vibrancy I faltered, fumb-
ling for a word. It dropped without a sound.
And struck instead upon our lips the dumb-
ness of a timeless instant where we found
Each worshipped in the other's adytum. Sonnet XVII In the daze of Herod the King, behold there came
Wise men from the East to Jerusalem, saying, why?
Is he to be born King of the Jews to die
As a lamb for the sins of man? Is God to blame?
Is the world built so? Have we nothing but guilt and shame
To be saved? At first we witnessed a peaceful sky
Leap back from stab of his star. And now men cry
For children's blood on the count of his kingly claim!

We have heard choirs of angels, singing "Beware!
He has come with a sword!" There are rumors of plots and doom
And death on a cross! We have come to assuage with a prayer
For peace. But he leapt like a fiend from Mary's tomb
Intent upon nothing but death. We have come to despair
That his terrible birth will occur from a hillside womb!
Sonnet XVIa I: tolled. You: listen. How are you? 2/4? Give
Me? Debts? Whe!! (never y thing I have) Is thee
a loan? A gift! OH LORD FROM! Thee:Me?
God! Is love like this? And relative
to being? Defined so? What! I am I! Give
to you no more! No! Lesson done by me:
I give you "Love is this: profanity!
To fold you in the (¢) rippled: curse!" I live

Contained! All love that later bloomed from seed
The presence of desire wreathed in curse:
That leaves of love supply the roots of greed.
For all I love I am the cause of worse
Than love. Small wonder that my stricken weed
Can only give backwards and love inverse. Sonnet XVIb I told you, Listen, how are you to forgive
Me debts when everything I have is thee
Alone, a gift, Oh Lord, from thee?" (Mean-
ing God is love like this and relative
To being defined.) So what I am I give
To you, no more, no less! Undone by me
I give you, Love. Is this profanity
To fold you in the crippled curse I live?

Contained all love that later bloomed      From seed
The prescience of the sire               writhed in curse
That leaves of love supply the roots.           of greed
For all I love I am the cause.                     of worse
than) Love's (m) all wonder! (that, my stricken weed
can only give back words and love in verse.
Sonnet XVIII I breathe. I begin an accordion sound. I pause.
I'm tightly bound about a determining core
That sees incredible destinies before
I know them not. My budding heart because
The sky is resounding from the sun's flashing thaws
And promises songs that I shall never pour
Forth on a summer world. My powerful lore
Of growth stirs. My heart knows beautiful laws.

The saps obeying another law explore
My throat with delicate crystal probes. They know
The time. My song cracks, cold and sore.
O Sun! Stand still and warm and make me grow
To full and expanding sensuous leaves before
The winter returns and buries me in snow. Esclarmonde Your eyes will let you see the light
Where others seek the way in darkness.
Your hands will give you inner sight
To feel the future in all is fullness.
Peace is dawning - it's in your head.
Be good to us - show us the way.
Men make war - make love instead.
It's what you are - not what you say.

Your fury burns injustice back.
No one dares try to block your path.
You weave with threads of gold and black
A web engulfing greed by wrath.
Peace is passion in your eyes,
Justice won your quest and prize.
Tell the Angel Tell the angel of death to wait above
While you keep a rendezvous with me,
For I wait for you in a sunny cove
On an island lying in the Middle Sea.
The olive trees grow down to the shore.
And the water is turquoise blue and green.
We'll meet at the temple built long before
The first tragedy was put on scene.

Tell him that though his robes are gold
My sun is even more beautiful.
And though his body is young and bold,
My love will make you younger still.
Our story will be forever told
A love eternal, a love fulfilled. Dites à l'Ange Dites à l'ange qu'il faut se patienter
Car tu as un rendez-vous à faire.
Je t'attends dans une ile en plein soleil,
flottant dessus la turquoise mer.
Les oliviers poussent jusqu'aux ondes
et un temple couronne la colline en haut,
construit dans une age avant que le monde
a fait de la tragédie l'héros.

Dites que malgré son manteau d'or
mon soleil regne en lumière dessus.
Dites que malgré la beauté de son corps,
tu rajeunis de mes caresses vêtus.
On va toujours raconter notre amor,
amor éternel, amor connu!

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