Saturday, February 9, 2008

against the jutted stars


when i go away from you
the world beats dead
like a slackened drum.
i call out for you against the jutted stars
and shout into the ridges of the wind.
streets coming fast,
one after the other,
wedge you away from me,
and the lamps of the city prick my eyes
so that i can no longer see your face.
why should i leave you,
to wound myself upon the sharp edges of the night?

taxi ~ amy lowell

1 comment:

  1. when you, my dear, are away, away,
    how wearily goes the creeping day.
    a year drags after morning, and night starts another year of candle light.
    o pausing sun and lingering moon!
    grant me, i beg of you, this boon.

    whirl round the earth as never sun
    has his diurnal journey run.
    and, moon, slip past the ladders of air
    in a single flash, while your streaming hair
    catches the stars and pulls them down
    to shine on some slumbering Chinese town.

    o kindly sun! understanding moon!
    bring evening to crowd the footsteps of noon.

    but when that long awaited day
    hangs ripe in the heavens, your voyaging stay.
    be morning, o sun! with the lark in song,
    be afternoon for ages long.
    and, moon, let you and your lesser lights
    watch over a century of nights.

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