Time Cannot Be Worn

alan grant

Time Cannot Be Worn...
by Hart Crane


Time cannot be worn strapped to the supple wrist
Like any buckled jewel or bangle; no,
Lady, though the fingers that attach it twist
The oyster from its shell, may guide the bow
Across cool strings that lift a lasting claim
Upon Eternity. No, Lady,



[copyright Liveright Publishing, 1933]

Rhapsody

james jowers

Rhapsody (excerpt)
by Frank O'Hara


You were there always and you know all about these things
as indifferent as an encyclopedia with your calm brown eyes

it isn’t enough to smile when you run the gauntlet
you’ve got to spit like Niagara Falls on everybody or
Victoria Falls or at least the beautiful urban fountains of Madrid
as the Niger joins the Gulf of Guinea near the Menemsha Bar
that is what you learn in the early morning passing Madison Avenue
where you’ve never spent any time and stores eat up light

I have always wanted to be near it

though the day is long (and I don’t mean Madison Avenue)

lying in a hammock on St. Mark’s Place sorting my poems

[copyright Frank O'Hara, 1951]

Two Songs

allan grant

Two Songs
from "The Lamp and the Bell" by Edna St. Vincent Millay

I

Oh, little rose tree, bloom!
Summer is nearly over.
The dahlias bleed and the phlox is seed.
Nothing's left of the clover.
And the path of the poppy no one knows.
I would blossom if I were a rose.

Summer, for all your guile,
Will brown in a week to Autumn,
And launched leaves throw a shadow below
Over the brook's clear bottom,--
And the chariest bud the year can boast
Be brought to bloom by the chastening frost.

II

Beat me a crown of bluer metal;
Fret it with stones of a foreign style:
The heart grows weary after a little
Of what it loved for a little while.

Weave me a robe of richer fibre;
Pattern its web with a rare device:
Give away to the child of a neighbour
This gold gown I was glad in twice.


But buy me a singer to sing one song--
Song about nothing--song about sheep--
Over and over all day long;
Patch me again my thread-bare sleep.


[copyright Edna St. Vincent Millay, 1921]