lyrics

ran across this tiny book of 40's lyric poetry that really has nothing to do with anything. it wasn't the content but the feelings each word evoked that made me want to share...

IV(or a long day's journey into night)

between the mighty legs of Death

we play the schoolboy pranks of breath;

scrawl challenge on his sodden boots,

the while he coils his cypress roots.

III (or shy and figured out)

Psycho-analyzed i stand

and meditate your little hand;

your lost, evasive eyes that seem

to lean upon me while they scheme;

and thus contemplative, i know

why i adore and need you so: ---

IX (or telling you you're beautiful)

i wish my mind would let me take

you as you are for your own sake

a trifle less i might adore

but then i should enjoy you more

but imagination will

change and transfigure you until

i never see you, but it seems

some glory of you stayed in dreams

sometimes i think the only thing

that can the lasting rapture bring

is not to see you but to stay

in love with you and far away

this is the kind of distant bliss

that Dante got from Beatrice

a woman singing in the trees

a name, an epic, to the breeze

and men and women all will prove

this cruel arson against love

that he burns all else away

in the beloved but the clay

XII (or the seeking and not finding of affectionate attention)

i shal sing a song to you

fair a song as any

perfect as a drop of dew

rare among the many

eager dancing words will do

their melodious duty

make a lucent mirror, true

to your shining beauty

i shall coin your golden hair

for a stanza's treasure

tame your wild and wayward air

to my love-sick measure

i shall lift my song and sing

with the voice of doom

the utter loneliness you bring

into this little room