Coda
A strong song tows
us, long earsick.
Blind, we follow . . .
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Cold Blooded Creatures
Man, the egregious egoist,
(In mystery the twig is bent,)
Imagines, by some mental twist, . . .
Come into Animal Presence
Come into animal presence.
No man is so guileless as
the serpent. The lonely white . . .
The Coming of the Plague
September was when it began.
Locusts dying in the fields; our dogs
Silent, moving like shadows on a wall; . . .
Concord Hymn
By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled,
Here once the embattled farmers stood . . .
The Consent
Late in November, on a single night
Not even near to freezing, the ginkgo trees
That stand along the walk drop all their leaves . . .
Contraction
Honest self-scrutiny too easily mutinies,
mutates into false memories
Which find language a receptive host, . . .
Cool Tombs
When Abraham Lincoln was shoveled into the tombs, he forgot the copperheads and the assassin ... in the dust, in the cool tombs.
And Ulysses Grant lost all thought of con men and Wall Street, cash and collateral turned ashes ... in the dust, in the cool tombs.
. . .
The Craftsman
I ply with all the cunning of my art
This little thing, and with consummate care
I fashion it—so that when I depart,
Those who come after me shall find it fair . . .
The Cross of Snow
In the long, sleepless watches of the night,
A gentle face — the face of one long dead —
Looks at me from the wall, where round its head . . .
