Excerpt
"Chorale"
Quite difficult, belief.
Quite terrible, faith
that the night, again,
will nominate
you a running mate-
that we are of the elect
& have not yet
found out. That the tide
still might toss us up
another-what eyes
& stars, what teeth!
such arms, alive-
someone we will, all
night, keep. Not
just these spiders
that skitter & cobweb,
share my shivering bed.
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"Ditty"
You, rare as Georgia
snow. Falling
hard. quick.
Candle shadow.
The cold
spell that catches
us by surprise.
The too-early blooms,
tricked, gardenias blown about,
circling wind. Green figs.
Nothing stays. I want
to watch you walk
the hall to the cold tile
bathroom--all
night, a lifetime.
**Click here to send this poem as an animated ecard:
http://www.randomhouse.com/knopf/ecards/young/ecard.html
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"Harvest Song"
Lover you leave me
autumn, tilling, a man
tending his yard,
or one not even
his own. Outskirts
of town a farmer
one-armed, walks his fields
into fire--my neighbor
on his knees with a razor
trims his lawn. Next door
I am in the pines--
grass thirsting, and up
to here in weeds--
poison, neglect,
I have tried to forget--
nothing works. Let
the birds rabbits
termites have the run
of the place, the worms,
I will take them in
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"Elegy, Niagara Falls"
for Bert King, d. 1996
Here snow starts
but does not
stick--stay--
is not enough
to cover
the bare thaw--
ed ground.
Grief is the god that gets us--
good--in the end--
Here--churches
let out
early--in time
to catch the lunch
special--at my local
hotel. Sunday--
even the bus
boy has your
face. And still
having heard
some days later you
were dead--
I haven't caught
sight--day
From the Hardcover edition.