Kenneth Patchen Earth Poems
- 1. My Generation Reading The Newspapers
We must be slow and delicate; return
the policeman's stare with some esteem,
remember this is not a shadow play
of doves and geese but this is now
... - 2. The Cloth Of The Tempest
These of living emanate a formidable light,
Which is equal to death, and when used
Gives increase eternally.
What fortifies in separate thought
... - 3. Let Us Have Madness
Let us have madness openly.
O men Of my generation.
Let us follow
The footsteps of this slaughtered age:
... - 4. Be Music, Night
Be music, night,
That her sleep may go
Where angels have their pale tall choirs
... - 5. Fall Of The Evening Star
Speak softly; sun going down
Out of sight. Come near me now.
Dear dying fall of wings as birds
... - 6. The Hangman's Great Hands
And all that is this day. . .
The boy with cap slung over what had been a face. ..
Somehow the cop will sleep tonight, will make love to his
... - 7. In The Footsteps Of The Walking Air
In the footsteps of the walking air
Sky's prophetic chickens weave their cloth of awe
And hillsides lift green wings in somber journeying.
... - 8. Saturday Night In The Parthenon
Tiny green birds skate over the surface of the room.
A naked girl prepares a basin with steaming water,
And in the corner away from the hearth, the red wheels
Of an up-ended chariot slowly turn.
... - 9. The Temple
To leave the earth was my wish, and no will stayed my rising.
Early, before sun had filled the roads with carts
Conveying folk to weddings and to murders;
Before men left their selves of sleep, to wander
...
