Poems
Uschold, Maud E. & Wagner, Charles A. & Batchelor, Jean & Ailing, Kenneth Slade & Lee, Muna & May-nard, Theodore
September II, I929 THE COMMONWEAL POEMS ffT'inis Though on each idle dwdling There swings a sign, Such rental and such selling Is none of mine No roof forever leaking...
...arewel...
...There may I cease from labor Nor pause to hear The busy mole, my neighbor, Toiling near...
...The night waits an entrance cue Nervous as a young actor, And the thin stars tell each other stories Awaiting the play with eyes glistening...
...The eery whistle sounding Comes not from the bird I see...
...MAUD E. USeHOLD...
...And when I vanish out of mind, Candles around me as I lie Deaf even to the dirge, and blind To all except the sky, May I fix eyes on Him who stands Among the candlesticks aflame, The seven stars within His hands, And on His lips my name...
...O the dream-long days of youth...
...No foot of any mortal Can cross its sill...
...THEODORE MAYNARD...
...O the lithe straight bodies...
...O the wing-swift flight of youth...
...MUNA LEE...
...O the slim sweet strength of youth...
...Nothing except thy rays may shine To gild the missal's page at dawn, As Mass is chanted line by line Ere night be quite withdrawn...
...When the font gives eternal life Thy light rests on the infant's head...
...CPlanet This midsea rock set in water as the spinning earth in air, This planet of the constellated tropical islands where Each looks across blue ocean as the stars across blue ether, This rock is our world and we its slaves and lords together...
...And history dwindles to a point in time as earth to this point in space, And one moment captures them both and it is the moment that we face...
...He cannot rise...
...Until the fields have begun spinning purple, Until the tall corn has stopped its wagging, Until the valley is quiet to a flower fall, Until the lamps are lit in the tiny farmhouses And the boys have brought in the cows, The sunset lingers...
...In that mad water...
...September II, I929 THE COMMONWEAL POEMS ffT'inis Though on each idle dwdling There swings a sign, Such rental and such selling Is none of mine No roof forever leaking Of timbers made, The house that I am seeking Is with a spade Hollowed...
...But the older stars stand by, unmoved...
...For such a house I'd squander All my store And never need to wander Any more...
...to Youth Once I was fleet of foot, Wild as the waterfall, Fleet as bird song, Flower-free...
...As ranged sharks seize on the swimmer And thrust below where light wanes dimmer...
...Now a bird skims silently Over a mirror of dead water...
...they have him now...
...Hushed is its earthen portal And hushed and still That chamber roofed with grasses Where I shall lie Heedless what season passes Beneath what sky...
...O the clean fire burning in ivory towers...
...In that enormous undertow, They have him now...
...of clay its rafter, Its roof of clay, There is no sound of laughter, No light of day...
...Destroyed Destroyed by dreams...
...KENNETH SLADE ALLINO...
...Thy wick burns as the happy wife Comes from her childing bed...
...JEAN BATeHELOR...
...O the great, swift-flying days...
...q ra] Etching Faint blossoms that fade and fall Are the fading tattered clouds, And bitter is the wind on the river...
...CHARLES A. WAONER...
...he sees the water Locked far above him everywhere, And in the green and massive air The subtle dreams begin their slaughter...
...Candles The gravest courtesy of light, To all sweet loneliness a friend: Upon the scholar's book at night Thy beam his brooding blend...
Vol. 10 • September 1929 • No. 19
