Wide Waters (verse)
Leonard, Dorothy
Wide Waters All day along my strait canal I go, Moved by the lock of books to high or low; Swirling within each new-petitioned cage But always level after carriage. Level my banks for little boys...
...And yet-without a flood, without a break, Without the definition of a lake, Comes the wide waters, comes my fairy sea, My day of troubled, safe infinity...
...I tend the headlight, turn the ruddery tail...
...My stream...
...I love it-curious cabined box!- Its freight, its passengers, its powerful locks, Its tiny tasks, its evenings under stars, Its banks that prick before like sunset bars And offer ever-changing hues at hand...
...I couldn't land...
...I love to sit and watch...
...level for old blind mule...
...Strait for the farmer's bridge like faith to span And make a tryst-rail for his new-found man...
...Level as sextant, transit, chain and rule...
...Dorothy Leonard...
...My me...
...Level for towline...
...My own "bright barque...
...I choose to sail...
...Level as life and strait as only one That keeps its destined channel, once begun...
...Level my banks for little boys to leap In glassy waters where the fishes sleep...
Vol. 11 • February 1930 • No. 17
