Jack Spicer

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Verlaine

A song Which I shall never sing Has fallen asleep on my lips. A song Which I shall never sing--

Above the honeysuckle There's a firefly And the moon stings With a ray into the water--

At that time I'll imagine The song Which I shall never sing.

A song full of lips And far-off washes

A song full of lost Hours in the shadow

A song of a star that's alive Above enduring day.

The Ballad of the Dead Woodcutter

Because the figtree was sapless It has cracked at the root.

Oh, you have fallen down on your head You have fallen on your head.

Because the oaktree was rootless It has cracked at the branch.

Oh, you have fallen down on your head You have fallen on your head.

Because I walked through the branches I have scratched out my heart.

Oh, you have fallen down on your head You have fallen on your head.

Alba

If your hand had been meaningless Not a single blade of grass Would spring from the earth's surface. Easy to write, to kiss -- No, I said, read your paper. Be there Like the earth When shadow covers the wet grass.

Song of the Poor

Ay que trabajo me cuesta quererte como te quiero!

Because I love you the table And the heart and the lamplight Feel sorry for me.

Who will buy from me That small belt I have And that sadness of white thread To weave handkerchiefs?

Because I love you the ceiling And the heart and the air Feel sorry for me.

Ay que trabajo me cuesta quererte como te quiero!

Aquatic Park

A green boat Fishing in blue water

The gulls circle the pier Calling their hunger

A wind rises from the west Like the passing of desire

Two boys play on the beach Laughing

Their gangling legs cast shadows On the wet sand

Then, Sprawling in the boat

A beautiful black fish.

Forest

You want me to tell you The secret of springtime --

And I relate to that secret Like a high-branching firtree

Whose thousand little fingers Point a thousand little roads.

I will tell you never, my love, Because the river runs slowly

But I shall put into my branching voice The ashy sky of your gaze.

Turn me around, brown child Be careful of my needles.

Turn me around and around, playing At the well pump of love.

The secret of springtime. How I wish I could tell you!

Narcissus

Poor Narcissus Your dim fragrance And the dim heart of the river

I want to stay at your edge Flower of love Poor Narcissus

Ripples and sleeping fish Cross your white eyes Songbirds and butterflies Japanese mine

I so tall beside you Flower of love Poor Narcissus

How wide-awake the frogs are They won't stay out of the surface In which your madness and my madness Mirrors itself

Poor Narcissus My sorrow Self of my sorrow.

He Died at Sunrise

Night of four moons And a single tree, With a single shadow And a single bird.

I look into my body for The tracks of your lips. A stream kisses into the wind Without touch.

I carry the No you gave me Clenched in my palm Like something made of wax An almost-white lemon.

Night of four moons And a single tree At the point of a needle Is my love, spinning.

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