Goddess

Whom we desired above all things to know,

Sister of the mirage and echo.

It was a virtue not to stay,

To go our headstrong and heroic way

Seeking her out at the volcano's head,

Among pack ice, or where the track had faded

Beyond the cavern of the seven sleepers:

Whose broad high brow was white as any leper's,

Whose eyes were blue, with rowan-berry lips,

With hair curled honey-coloured to white hips.

The sap of Spring in the young wood a-stir

Will celebrate with green the Mother,

And every song-bird shout awhile for her;

But we are gifted, even in November

Rawest of seasons, with so huge a sense

Of her nakedly worn magnificence

We forget cruelty and past betrayal,

Heedless of where the next bright bolt may fall. 

The Captured Goddess

Over the housetops,

Above the rotating chimney-pots,

I have seen a shiver of amethyst,

And blue and cinnamon have flickered

A moment,

At the far end of a dusty street.

Through sheeted rain

Has come a lustre of crimson,

And I have watched moonbeams

Hushed by a film of palest green.

It was her wings,

Goddess!

Who stepped over the clouds,

And laid her rainbow feathers

Aslant on the currents of the air.

I followed her for long,

With gazing eyes and stumbling feet.

I cared not where she led me,

My eyes were full of colours:

Saffrons, rubies, the yellows of beryls,

And the indigo-blue of quartz;

Flights of rose, layers of chrysoprase,

Points of orange, spirals of vermilion,

The spotted gold of tiger-lily petals,

The loud pink of bursting hydrangeas.

I followed,

And watched for the flashing of her wings.

In the city I found her,

The narrow-streeted city.

In the market-place I came upon her,

Bound and trembling.

Her fluted wings were fastened to her sides with cords,

She was naked and cold,

For that day the wind blew

Without sunshine.

Men chaffered for her,

They bargained in silver and gold,

In copper, in wheat,

And called their bids across the market-place.

The Goddess wept.

Hiding my face I fled,

And the grey wind hissed behind me,

Along the narrow streets. 

The Goddess of Light

What pleasant brilliance my eyes behold! 

Wavelenghts of light beyond my threshold

Electron light my heart excites

Into daydreams and insomnia nights

On the sun as throne, the moon crown

Arrayed in galaxies woven as gown

Rays of beauty ne'er been described

Ignites a craving, a yearning thrived.

The warmth of her smile, ne'er been felt

The glaciers in my veins begin to melt

The sparkle in her eyes set mine ablaze

In a dreary haze, she ignores my gaze.