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  • Lute : voyages II by Hart Crane on June 5, 2008
    —And yet this great wink of eternity,
    Of rimless floods, unfettered leewardings,
    Samite sheeted and processioned where
    Her undinal vast belly moonward bends,
    Laughing the wrapt inflections of our love;

    Take this Sea, whose diapason knells
    On scrolls of silver snowy sentences,
    The sceptred terror of whose sessions rends
    As her demeanors motion well or ill,
    All but the pieties of lovers' hands.

    And onward, as bells off San Salvador
    Salute the crocus lustres of the stars,
    In these poinsettia meadows of her tides,—
    Adagios of islands, O my Prodigal,
    Complete the dark confessions her veins spell.

    Mark how her turning shoulders wind the hours,
    And hasten while her penniless rich palms
    Pass superscription of bent foam and wave,—
    Hasten, while they are true,—sleep, death, desire,
    Close round one instant in one floating flower.

    Bind us in time, O Seasons clear, and awe.
    O minstrel galleons of Carib fire,
    Bequeath us to no earthly shore until
    Is answered in the vortex of our grave
    The seal's wide spindrift gaze toward paradise.

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  • on The Encounter by Ezra Pound, on July 23
    the effect & delicacy of the thing said.

    Not resolution, but the "feel" of the Human experience.

  • rest of the Poem:

    III


    slim adolescence that a nymph has stripped,
    Peleus on Thetis stares.
    Her limbs are delicate as an eyelid,
    love has blinded him with tears;
    But Thetis' belly listens.
    Down the Mountain wlls
    From where Pan's cavern is
    Intolerable music falls.
    Foul goat-head, Brutal arm appear,
    belly, shoulder, bum
    Flash fish-like,nymphs and satyrs
    Copulate in the foam.

  • on Sinful Cynthia by Sextus Propertius, on September 6, 2007
    Is it true all Rome talks about you,
    Cynthia,
    and you live in unveiled wantonness?
    Did I expect to deserve this?
    I’ll deal punishment,
    faithless girl,
    and my breeze will blow somewhere else.
    I’ll find one of all the deceitful women
    who wishes to be made famous by my song,
    who won’t taunt me with such harsh ways:
    she’ll insult you:
    ah, so long loved, you’ll weep too late.

    Now my anger’s fresh:
    now’s the time to go:
    if pain returns, believe me, love will be back.
    The Carpathian waves
    don’t change in the northerlies as fast,
    or the black storm cloud,
    in a shifting southwest gale,
    as lovers’ anger alters at a word.
    While you can take your neck from the unjust yoke. Then you won’t grieve at all,
    except for the very first night:
    all love’s evils are slight,
    if you are patient.
    But, by the gentle laws of our lady Juno,
    mea vita, stop hurting yourself on purpose.
    It’s not just the bull that hits
    out with a curving horn at its aggressor,
    even a sheep, it’s true, opposes an enemy.
    I won’t rip the clothes off your lying flesh,
    or break open your shut doors,
    or tear at your plaited hair in anger,
    or dare to bruise you with my hard fists.
    Let some ignoramus look for quarrels
    as shabby as these,
    a man whose head no ivy ever encircled.
    I’ll go write:
    what your lifetime won’t rub out:
    ‘Cynthia, strong in beauty:
    Cynthia light of word.’
    Trust me, though you defy scandal’s murmur,
    this verse,
    Cynthia, will make you pale.

  • Invitation to the Voyage


    My child, my sister,
    Think of the rapture
    Of living together there!
    Of loving at will,
    Of loving till death,
    In the land that is like you!
    The misty sunlight
    Of those cloudy skies
    Has for my spirit the charms,
    So mysterious,
    Of your treacherous eyes,
    Shining brightly through their tears.


    There all is order and beauty,
    Luxury, peace, and pleasure.


    Gleaming furniture,
    Polished by the years,
    Will ornament our bedroom;
    The rarest flowers
    Mingling their fragrance
    With the faint scent of amber,
    The ornate ceilings,
    The limpid mirrors,
    The oriental splendor,
    All would whisper there
    Secretly to the soul
    In its soft, native language.


    There all is order and beauty,
    Luxury, peace, and pleasure.


    See on the canals
    Those vessels sleeping.
    Their mood is adventurous;
    It's to satisfy
    Your slightest desire
    That they come from the ends of the earth.
    — The setting suns
    Adorn the fields,
    The canals, the whole city,
    With hyacinth and gold;
    The world falls asleep
    In a warm glow of light.


    There all is order and beauty,
    Luxury, peace, and pleasure.


    — William Aggeler, The Flowers of Evil (Fresno, CA: Academy Library Guild, 1954)