Poems
Patterson, R. M. Jr. & Davies, Mary Carolyn & Bealle, Marie de L. Welch, Alfred Battle & Ryan, Kathryn White & McKenna, Daniel J.
October 27, 1926 THE COMMONWEAL 61 POEM...
...And the first city-lights, under the flaming west Being a kind God, being a fair God, Glint like a jeweled brooch caught at her tawny breast...
...Carefully they tread, nor wake the sleeper "And if I were a ship, I'd bring Besides whose couch they stand...
...Enfolding, comforting, Chanting high courage, R. M. PATTERSON, JR...
...And in the hold I'd bring to you A silver song...
...Plays havoc with love's heresies Into Virginia . . . ! What though old scenes again With his pocketfuls of tricks...
...ALFRED BATTLE BEALLE...
...To you belong, to you belong...
...A comrade who is wise indeed, Soon fragments of her scattered soul To comfort him for being wise...
...Chanting assurance that never, 0 never Shall His children go thirsting forever...
...October 27, 1926 THE COMMONWEAL 61 POEM S To a Haunted House ain Song Now the Potomac tide languidly seems to float To the tune of the rain song, the night song, Like a limp, silver veil twined at earth's olive throat...
...Being architect divine and engineer Who can bridge miles and leagues, Hark to that cattle-call, far the old road along, Even girdling the seas with whispers, (Like some old melody lilted at evensong) Joining those who know the miracle Answered, from faraway fields beyond Accotink, By a silence, a thought . . . By a faint cow-bell's low, liquid, metallic clinkBecause God, being God, Come ! Take the road again, tread its familiar span Being the answerer of prayers and hearer of songs, Through the remembered fields, fragrant, Virginian...
...cflll Hallows' Eve Not in the rags of terror do they caper, The dead, the blessed spirits whom God chose, Cargoes for Marianne Who ask a prayer or sacramental taper, That they may have repose...
...Waken old memories, waken old dreams again...
...God gives comfort to lonely hearts...
...Recompense beautiful ! Poor little dreams ! . . . The last light, over Ettington, For you and me chanting a rain song, a dream song, Gleams like a lamp-see, it flickers, and falters God comes in the night-time, the sleep-time, And fades, and dies out, like a desolate altar's...
...To seek the realm appointed for their staying, "For silk and gold and hearts of men Affrighted by the dawn...
...He hears souls praying and knows their hunger, And builds bridges from soul to soul, Here is the house, o'er whose gardens of yesteryear Letting them pass and repass (Haunted by more than the ghost of the cavalier- In the night-time, the sleep-time, Haunted by wistful, dead dreams...
...MARIE DE L. WELCH...
...KATHRYN WHITE RYAN...
...Collect, grow confidently whole...
...And past the purple sea...
...And if I were a ship," he said, "And if I were a ship," said he, Sweetly and softly come they when the deeper "I'd sail beyond the sunset red, Hours of night have sealed the placid land...
...You cargoes all of silk and gold, Over their loved ones a brief delaying, And lovely broken hearts of men, A furtive kiss, a sigh, and they are gone, More than your hands could hold...
...the fast lowering night Through choiring leaves and wind orchestras Gathers and falls, as a curtain in candlelight And tremulous viols of the rain...
...MARY CAROLYN DAMES...
...Drapes and unfolds . . . . It is time to be getting on...
...Only This Counsel Save your wisdom, since your friend Cathedral In love and hunger, thought and pain, Will too easily attain After the laceration of withholding faces, Wisdom himself, and at the end, After the buffetings of crowded places, When his heart and hands and eyes Into the sheltering of incensed walls Are very tired, he will need Pursued and trembling her aloofness crawls...
...DANIEL J. MCKENNA...
Vol. 4 • October 1926 • No. 25
