Poems
Sterling, George & Flynn, Clarence E. & Conkling, Grace Hazard & Shallcross, Eleanor Custis
December I, I926 T H E C O M M O N W E A L Io5 POEMS
Porto Rico I Ploughing the Cane-Fields The dark ridge, then the crumbled hill, then a cone The whole sky rests on, then the sun in a...
...It tastes of fruit...
...The Final Faith Not often, when the carnal dance is mad-- Not often, in our youth's audacity, Shall one, aware, have final faith in thee, O soul, for he that knows thee shall be sad Betimes, and youth would be forever glad...
...I know not his philosophy-- Platonic or Aurelian...
...A road with inns of warmth and cheerful light, Where all the weary and the travel-stained Have stopped to cleanse away the dust and fright, And start new-hearted on the quest again...
...II Guayama Seine I saw them pull the colors out of the sea...
...Here's ripe rain not like any other...
...I heard round voices cry and tremble away In minor thirds because the trade-wind spoke, Sobbing under its breath, the earth knows how...
...But they must like the boys that chant all day Between their bowed heads, riding on the yoke, One to each pair, six oxen to a plough...
...Gm*CE HAZARD CONKLING...
...Somehow gone astray, The sword he wore had failed to set him free . . . That two-inch blade tipped with vermilion...
...I came too late...
...A palm tree glimmers pale Marking the turn...
...III Jayuya Shower When mangoes fall, it's into the river...
...Rain makes the cane-fields wince and quiver...
...it is wine of rain...
...The Roman Road "We were but Man, who/or a tale o/days Seeks the one city by a million ways...
...But coconuts tumble into the road...
...GEORtE STERLING...
...Peasant and sage and kingly embassies-All have been fed around the great inn's board...
...Rain stands and sings...
...December I, I926 T H E C O M M O N W E A L Io5 POEMS Porto Rico I Ploughing the Cane-Fields The dark ridge, then the crumbled hill, then a cone The whole sky rests on, then the sun in a veil: And up the tilted world there goes a trail Of satin furrow like a monotone Of cellos ploughing brown fields of their own...
...But when the humiliation of the flesh Is ours, like truant children going home We turn to thee, the beautiful and best, Whose dew-remembered flowers are ever fresh-- Whose winds are from the snows and ocean-foam-- Who hast the starlight on thy marble breast...
...Who would want to be Reputed a chameleon ? CLARENCE E. FLYNN...
...SHALLCROSS...
...The oxen will not fail To travel straight...
...Through many-colored mists we call or flee, And in illusion's raiment are we clad...
...A cloud dissolved is a heavy load...
...they know the way alone...
...Wherever he may chance to go He meets the crowd's demanding...
...All have come hungry for the Bread and Wine Brought from the city by its gracious Lord For every pilgrim to the end of time...
...It wasn't going to rain, you said...
...He suits his color to the scene---Blue, brown, or grey, or muddy...
...Then, craving freedom, never are we free...
...His valor was all spent, And now he had to die of air and sun, While I must face futility again Staring across a diamond silence when I asked the Caribbean what it meant...
...At last a cloud from the sea has made you Curl a banana leaf over your head As though its whim had been to persuade you...
...In Rome he does as Romans do, And so he keeps his standing...
...ELEANOR CUSTI...
...No matter...
...It drives the kid to the bronzed goat-mother, It turns her back to the trees again...
...The Chameleon Upon a green leaf he is green, Upon a red one ruddy...
...A million ways, because they never found The old road built across the vanished years-- A hard, straight highway through the swampy ground, The gloom of forests, and the blood and tears Of all the wars of nineteen centuries...
...John Masefield...
...From the great seine the water fell away And left the blue with mother-of-pearl inlay, The winnowed silver and the two or three Lavender jellies, t'ablo handed me A slender shape, a sort of Culprit Fay In drooping gossamer...
Vol. 5 • December 1926 • No. 4
