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“We must not be frightened nor cajoled
into accepting evil as deliverance from evil.
We must go on struggling to be human,
though monsters of abstraction
police and threaten us.
Reclaim now, now renew the vision of
a human world where godliness
is possible and man
is neither gook nigger honkey wop nor kike
but man
permitted to be man.”
― Collected Poems
into accepting evil as deliverance from evil.
We must go on struggling to be human,
though monsters of abstraction
police and threaten us.
Reclaim now, now renew the vision of
a human world where godliness
is possible and man
is neither gook nigger honkey wop nor kike
but man
permitted to be man.”
― Collected Poems
“Sundays too my father got up early
and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold,
then with cracked hands that ached
from labor in the weekday weather made
banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him.
I'd wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking.
When the rooms were warm, he'd call,
and slowly I would rise and dress,
fearing the chronic angers of that house,
speaking indifferently to him,
who had driven out the cold
and polished my good shoes as well.
What did I know, what did I know
of love's austere and lonely offices?”
― Collected Poems
and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold,
then with cracked hands that ached
from labor in the weekday weather made
banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him.
I'd wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking.
When the rooms were warm, he'd call,
and slowly I would rise and dress,
fearing the chronic angers of that house,
speaking indifferently to him,
who had driven out the cold
and polished my good shoes as well.
What did I know, what did I know
of love's austere and lonely offices?”
― Collected Poems
“Art is not escape, but a way of finding order in chaos, a way of confronting life.”
―
―
“When the rooms were warm, he'd call,
and slowly I would rise and dress,
fearing the chronic angers of that house,
Speaking indifferently to him,
Who had driven out the cold
and polished my good shoes as well.
What did I know, what did I know
Of love's austere and lonely offices?”
―
and slowly I would rise and dress,
fearing the chronic angers of that house,
Speaking indifferently to him,
Who had driven out the cold
and polished my good shoes as well.
What did I know, what did I know
Of love's austere and lonely offices?”
―
“The trees themselves, as in winters past, will survive their burdening, broken thrive.”
― Collected Poems
― Collected Poems
“Monet’s “Waterlilies” (for Bill and Sonja) Today as the news from Selma and Saigon poisons the air like fallout, I come again to see the serene great picture that I love. Here space and time exist in light the eye like the eye of faith believes. The seen, the known dissolve in iridescence, become illusive flesh of light that was not, was, forever is. O light beheld as through refracting tears. Here is the aura of that world each of us has lost. Here is the shadow of its joy.”
― Collected Poems
― Collected Poems
“Unable to sleep, or pray, I stand
by the window looking out
at moonstruck trees a December storm
has bowed with ice.
Maple and mountain ash bend
under its glassy weight,
their cracked branches falling upon
the frozen snow.
The trees themselves, as in winters past,
will survive their burdening,
broken thrive. And am I less to You,
my God, than they?”
― Collected Poems
by the window looking out
at moonstruck trees a December storm
has bowed with ice.
Maple and mountain ash bend
under its glassy weight,
their cracked branches falling upon
the frozen snow.
The trees themselves, as in winters past,
will survive their burdening,
broken thrive. And am I less to You,
my God, than they?”
― Collected Poems
“We must not be frightened nor cajoled
into accepting evil as deliverance from evil.
We must go on struggling to be human,
though monsters of abstraction
police and threaten us.”
―
into accepting evil as deliverance from evil.
We must go on struggling to be human,
though monsters of abstraction
police and threaten us.”
―
“I grieve. Yet know the
vanity of grief.”
―
vanity of grief.”
―
“The trees themselves, as in winters past, will survive their burdening, broken thrive. And am I less to You, my God, than they?”
― Collected Poems
― Collected Poems
“It was as though you struggled against
fierce current jagged with debris
to save me then. I am desperate still.”
― Collected Poems
fierce current jagged with debris
to save me then. I am desperate still.”
― Collected Poems
“O Jesus burning on the lily cross...
O night, rawhead and bloodybones night...
O night betrayed by darkness not its own.”
―
O night, rawhead and bloodybones night...
O night betrayed by darkness not its own.”
―
“Oh, what a world we make,
oppressor and oppressed.
Our world--
this violent ghetto, slum
of the spirit raging against itself.
We hate kill destroy
in the name of human good
our killing and our hate destroy.”
― Collected Poems
oppressor and oppressed.
Our world--
this violent ghetto, slum
of the spirit raging against itself.
We hate kill destroy
in the name of human good
our killing and our hate destroy.”
― Collected Poems
“confess i am curiously drawn unmentionable to
the americans doubt i could exist among them for
long however psychic demands far too severe
much violence much that repels i am attracted
none the less their variousness their ingenuity
their elan vital and that some thing essence
quiddity i cannot penetrate or name”
― Collected Poems
the americans doubt i could exist among them for
long however psychic demands far too severe
much violence much that repels i am attracted
none the less their variousness their ingenuity
their elan vital and that some thing essence
quiddity i cannot penetrate or name”
― Collected Poems
“something they call the american dream sure
we still believe in it i guess an earth man
in the tavern said irregardless of the some
times night mare facts we always try to double
talk our way around and its okay the dreams
okay and means whats good could be a damn sight
better means every body in the good old u s a
should have the chance to get ahead or at least
should have three squares a day as for myself
i do okay”
― Collected Poems
we still believe in it i guess an earth man
in the tavern said irregardless of the some
times night mare facts we always try to double
talk our way around and its okay the dreams
okay and means whats good could be a damn sight
better means every body in the good old u s a
should have the chance to get ahead or at least
should have three squares a day as for myself
i do okay”
― Collected Poems
“In time,
you will come to regard my questioning
with a certain pained
amusement; in time, get so
you would hardly find
it possible to live without
my joke and me.”
― Collected Poems
you will come to regard my questioning
with a certain pained
amusement; in time, get so
you would hardly find
it possible to live without
my joke and me.”
― Collected Poems
“How shall the mind keep warm
save at spectral
fires--how thrive but by the light
of paradox?”
― Collected Poems
save at spectral
fires--how thrive but by the light
of paradox?”
― Collected Poems
“We fight our wish to die.”
― Collected Poems
― Collected Poems
“Fed the fires that consume us now, the fire that will save.”
― Collected Poems
― Collected Poems
“What did I know, what did I know of love’s austere and lonely offices?”
― Collected Poems
― Collected Poems
“america as much a problem in metaphysics as
it is a nation earthly entity an iota in our
galaxy an organism that changes even as i
examine it fact and fantasy never twice the
same so many variables”
― Collected Poems
it is a nation earthly entity an iota in our
galaxy an organism that changes even as i
examine it fact and fantasy never twice the
same so many variables”
― Collected Poems
“Know that love has chosen you
to live his crucial purposes.
Know that love has chosen you.
And will not pamper you nor spare;
demands obedience to all
the rigorous laws of risk,
does not pamper, will not spare.
Oh, master now love's instruments—
complex and not for the fearful,
simple and not for the foolish.
Master now love's instruments.
I who love you tell you this,
even as the pitiful killer waits for me,
I who love you tell you this.”
― Collected Poems
to live his crucial purposes.
Know that love has chosen you.
And will not pamper you nor spare;
demands obedience to all
the rigorous laws of risk,
does not pamper, will not spare.
Oh, master now love's instruments—
complex and not for the fearful,
simple and not for the foolish.
Master now love's instruments.
I who love you tell you this,
even as the pitiful killer waits for me,
I who love you tell you this.”
― Collected Poems
“Traveling through Fog Looking back, we cannot see, except for its blurring lights like underwater stars and moons, our starting-place. Behind us, beyond us now is phantom territory, a world abstract as memories of earth the traveling dead take home. Between obscuring cloud and cloud, the cloudy dark ensphering us seems all we can be certain of. Is Plato’s cave.”
― Collected Poems
― Collected Poems
