The railway rattled and roared and swung
With jolting and bumping trucks.
The sun, like a billiard red ball, hung
In the Western sky: and the tireless tongue
Of the wild-eyed man in the corner told
This terrible tale of the days of old,
And the party that ought to have kept the ducks.
"Well, it ain't all joy bein' on the land
With an overdraft that'd knock you flat;
And the rabbits have pretty well took command;
......
My heart is like a little bird
That sits and sings for very gladness.
Sorrow is some forgotten word,
And so, except in rhyme, is sadness.
The world is very fair to me –
Such azure skies, such golden weather,
I’m like a long caged bird set free,
My heart is lighter than a feather.
......
Soule of my soule! my Joy, my crown, my friend!
A name which all the rest doth comprehend;
How happy are we now, whose sols are grown,
By an incomparable mixture, One:
Whose well acquainted minds are not as neare
As Love, or vows, or secrets can endeare.
I have no thought but what's to thee reveal'd,
Nor thou desire that is from me conceal'd.
Thy heart locks up my secrets richly set,
And my breast is thy private cabinet.
......
And now another autumn morning finds me
With chalk dust on my sleeve and in my breath,
Preoccupied with vague, habitual speculation
On the huge inevitability of death.
Not wholly wretched, yet knowing absolutely
That I shall never reacquaint myself with joy,
I sniff the smell of ink and chalk and my mortality
And think of when I rolled, a gormless boy,
......
I.
I dream of you walking at night along the streams
of the country of my birth, warm blooms and the nightsongs
of birds opening around you as you walk.
You are holding in your body the dark seed of my sleep.
II.
This comes after silence. Was it something I said
......
In many shades of floral, flawless beauty
their variant scents, sometimes fruity.
Swaying in sunbeams, joy flows
Solo dance, wind blows.
Heart-stopping
Rose
Smile dropping
Garden beauty pose
in lazy heat's daydream throes.
Bringing luxury to days, duly
......
Sadness
blue, intense
shadowing, overwhelming, clinging
tragedy, misfortune, laughter, fulfillment
startling, healing, cheering
persistent, inexhaustible
joy
Tatters the clown had brought joy to so many;
But of intense personal joys, he had not any.
Hard luck trailed him, as it sometimes will do,
As dark clouds chase the sun, in skies of blue.
He faced various losses, that made him weep,
Deaths and monetary, by getting in too deep!
Children laughed gaily, to see Tatters coming,
As blooms in silver moonlight, most becoming!
......
The paneled green door
opens to a sea of blooms-
purple passion fumes
A garden door to still bliss
at the edge of wilderness.
they herald the sweet season
like blooms herald spring
while carolers' chorus sounds
angels are singing as well
in moonlight, upon a cloud
joy is everywhere
the bells remind us
of the love from up above
......