In the old days At barn raisings After they worked together They danced together. So lay the floor, Americans,

What time is it? Midnight and very dark. Are you afraid? No. Are you? I want to live until morning.

Other hearts have broken gracefull… And now your eyes reproach me that… Is awkward, and my arms Are angular across my breast Where emptiness is pressed.

Harsh, unuttered thunder Stood like a stone wall Above the marsh’s silver line. Crooked cranes, white as lightning… Flattened for an instant, flashing…

Never heard happier laughter. Where did you hear it? Somwhere in the future. Very far in the future? No, not far, but near. American

Up that thin river, going over san… Down that deep river, purple to th… My fingers fire; cool your quiet h… And your voice sad, and mine the a… So, silver-thin, the flute-like ru…

In that day Everyone will sing, Everyone will play in that day; There will be carolling. You will make poems for your neigh…

Gnats and an ant have gnawed your… You who could spring and sprawl on… Down half the meadow. Under tiny… The ant has stored your essence.… You stitched the air with level da…

Sap stirs near me, roots stretch a… Sundering stones. And rivers waken, start in monoton… Their later tunes. Oaks bend their knotted knees

If you will poise your forefoot in… I will not loose a ripple, Beauti… Crackle the fern-stems, arch aloft… See! there’s no fright for you, an… A leaf shall not lift, nor a shade…

This is our time. We women and men Here once and only once Celebrate our time In song.

Winter put his shoulder To our door, Nights are turning colder More and more; We are old–or older

What husks of last year’s winter c… To-morrow’s world–what dead, what… Of ancient parchments, laws, belie… Worn, tattered layers keep the lif… Where slender as a sword, and tend…

There is a bird that hangs head-do… Between the mango leaves and passi… Below, a spotted serpent twines And blunts its head against the ye… Along the warping ground a turtle…

All essences of sweetness from the… Warm day go up in vapor, when the… Comes down. Ascends the tune of m… Ascends the noon-time smell of gra… Takes sunlight from the world, and…