PORTRAITS OF POETS

To rush over dark waters,

A swift bird with cruel talons;

To seize life —

Your life for her —

To hold it,

Hold it struggling —

To kiss it.

Crystal self-containment,

Giving out only what is sent.

Startled,

The circumference retreats

As it mounts higher, flamelike,

Still and clear without radiance,

Ascending without self-explanation.

A skeleton falls apart

With the dignity of comprehensible pathos,

The bones bleached by denial.

With the impalpable lightness of May breezes

Begins a battle of flower petals:

Cowering in the primrose whirlwind his lips have blown,

The little grotesque with the shattered heart,

Fearful,

Yet sinister in his fearfulness.