Miscellaneous Poems

FAREWELL, DESTINY

O Quiet is the wind yet something stirs
Between our world and heaven's starry skies
A spirit, shall I say, that knows a form
Beyond all that which beauty can describe;
A whole expanse of night pervades my sight
Disturbing naught that seeks of silent rest,
And yet withal I feel a wondrous thing
Upon the vision of unopen?d eyes
That now proclaims the portent of our fate:
The needs of life have made of us a span
And we shall from our ashes, phoenix-like,
Cry, "Hail the advent of the superman."

God's Lament

When I bestow beneficence upon man,
He distances himself from me.
When I heap calamities on his head,
He draws nigh.

Ode to Unchastity

Unchaste girls are not unchased,
But unchased girls are chaste;
The unchased have no time to waste,
For they've faced to their distaste
If they don't make haste to become unchaste,
They'll remain unchased and waste.

AUTUMN SONG

by Paul Verlaine translated by C.K. Garabed

The murmurings

Of autumn's strings

Bemoan

The languid sighs

My heart becries

Alone.

In breathless gloom

Toward pending doom

I creep

And fondly gaze

On former days

And weep.

And we are borne

By ill winds' scorn

To fly

Hither and brief

The withered leaf

And I.

A TRIBUTE TO MELODY

Let all my senses soon depart from me

Until I'm left with just that precious one

Can I survive without her voice to bear

In all its fulsomeness, tonality?

No, I would sooner part with sight and touch

Embracing all that I should wish to hear.