Do not be mean, I am ready for enormity

From the Restored Edition:

The soul is a bride
In a still place, and the groom is red and forgetful, he is featureless."

from "Berck-Plage'



I know why you will not give it to me,
You are terrified

The world will go up in a shriek, and your head with it,
Bossed, brazen, an antique shield,

A marvel to your great-grandchildren.
Do not be afraid, it is not so.

I will only take it and go aside quietly...

from "A Birthday Present"



The pain
You wake to is not yours.

Love, love,
I have hung our cave with roses,
With soft rugs---

The last of Victoriana
Let the stars
Plummet to their dark address,

Let the mercuric
Atoms that cripple drip
Into the terrible well,

You are the one
Solid the spaces lean on, envious.
You are the baby in the barn.

from "Nick and the Candlestick"