«It seems I am choosing words that will stand, / and you are in them, / but if I blunder, it doesn’t matter — / I must persist in my errors. I hear the soiled, dripping small talk of the roofs; / the students’ black boots drum eclogues on the boardwalks, / the undefined city takes on...»
«Beneath a willow entwined with ivy, / we look for shelter from the bad weather; / one raincoat covers both our shoulders — / my fingers rustle like the wild vine around your breasts. I am wrong. The rain’s stopped. / Not ivy, but the hair of Dionysus / hangs from these willows. What a...»
«(The Wedding) Having crossed the curb in the courtyard, / the Landlord journeyed to the feast, / into the Bride’s house — with him departed the accordion player, / behind the bolted door of the Bride, / between one and seven. The snatches of talk had quieted down. / but the sun rose...»
«Orioles live in the elms, and in classical verse / The length of the vowels alone determines the measure. / Once and once only a year nature knows quantity / Stretched to the limit as in Homer's meter. O this is a day that yawns like a caesura: / Serene from the start, almost painfully slow...»