It's dark
Switch on the poem
please
(click)
thank you
I love you
(and it was light)
but I'll still
I'll still be loving you
when
(click)
(end of light poem)
it's dark again.











Used by permission of the author.

one of our brassy beefeaters
in grandstand on the continent
bares biceps to the gaping millions
sinks shaft in market
pockets wheat
holds cornucopia of cash

cheers heard before his private front
as he lands place with notables

we call this tribute in a nutshell,
a miracle of entertainment

Speaking of beaus sartorial,
perplexed young girl hands laugh to love-wise:
“I am a lovely irresistible girl
of seventeen with wondrous witching orbs.”

Why do I blaze in my intangibles
like a mandolin romantic,
you, stable as the sterling?

CXXXII

Lo, what it is to love!
Learn ye, that list to prove,
At me, I say,
No ways that may
The grounded grief remove.
My life alway
That doth decay —
Lo, what it is to love!

Flee alway from the snare.
Learn by me to beware
Of such a train
Which doubles pain.
And endless woe and care
That doth retain,
Which to refrain
Flee alway from the snare.

To love and to be wise!
To rage with good advice!
Now thus, now then,
Now off, now on,
Uncertain as the dice!
There is no man
At once that can

Faith spread her wings to seek the realms of day;
Unfathomable depths before her lay.
Hope drooped beside her, as there stretched afar,
Space beyond space, outreaching endlessly,
The faintest gleam of the remotest star.
Her heart grew faint, her wings flagged heavily;
Vain seemed the quest, and endless seemed the way.

Then Love cried out, with voice that pierced the night:
“Lo, I am here!” and straight all space was light;
Darkness had vanished, and the weary way
Was all forgotten in the vision bright—
For Faith had reached the glorious gates of day!

From this valley they say you are going;
We will miss your bright eyes and sweet smile,
For they say you are taking the sunshine
That brightens our pathway a while.

CHORUS :
Come and sit by my side if you love me,
Do not hasten to bid me adieu.
But remember the Red River Valley
And the girl that has loved you so true.

Won't you think of the valley you're leaving?
Oh how lonely, how sad it will be,
Oh think of the fond heart you're breaking,
And the grief you are causing me?

CHORUS : Come and sit, etc.

We two that planets erst had been
Are now a double star,
And in the heavens may be seen,
Where that we fixed are.

Yet whirled with subtle power along,
Into new space we enter,
And evermore with spheral song
Revolve about one centre.

O my earliest love, who, ere I number'd
Ten sweet summers, made my bosom thrill!
Will a swallow--or a swift, or some bird--
Fly to her and say, I love her still?

Say my life's a desert drear and arid,
To its one green spot I aye recur:
Never, never--although three times married--
Have I cared a jot for aught but her.

No, mine own! though early forced to leave you,
Still my heart was there where first we met;
In those "Lodgings with an ample sea view,"
Which were, forty years ago, "To Let."

There I saw her first, our landlord's oldest

Lesbia, live to love and pleasure,
Careless what the grave may say:
When each moment is a treasure,
Why should lovers lose a day?

Setting suns shall rise in glory,
But when little life is o'er,
There's an end of all the story:
We shall sleep; and wake no more.

Give me, then, a thousand kisses,
Twice ten thousand more bestow,
Till the sum of boundless blisses
Neither we, nor envy know.

The train draws forth from the station-yard,
And with it carries me.
I rise, and stretch out, and regard
The platform left, and see
An airy slim blue form there standing,
And know that it is she.

While with strained vision I watch on,
The figure turns round quite
To greet friends gaily; then is gone. . . .
The import may be slight,
But why remained she not hard gazing
Till I was out of sight?

"O do not chat with others there,"
I brood. "They are not I.
O strain your thoughts as if they were
Gold bands between us; eye

1. What wondrous love is this, O my soul! O my soul! What wondrous love is
2. When I was sinking down, sinking down, sinking down, When I was sinking
this, O my soul! What wondrous love is this that caused the Lord of bliss To
down, sinking down; When I was sinking down, beneath God's righteous frown, Christ
bear the dreadful curse, for my soul, for my soul, To bear the dreadful curse, for my soul.
laid aside his crown, for my soul, for my soul, Christ laid aside his crown, for my soul.

3. Ye wingèd seraphs, fly! Bear the news! Bear the news!