Fall of the Evening Star

Fall of the Evening Star

 

Speak softly, sun going down

out of sight.  Come near me now.

 

Dear dying fall of wings from birds

Complain against the gathering dark…

 

Exaggerate the green blood in grass;

the music of leaves scraping space;

 

Multiply the stillness by one sound;

by one syllable of your name…

 

And all that is little is soon giant,

all that is rare grows in common beauty

 

To rest with my mouth on your mouth

as somewhere a star falls

 

And the earth takes it softly, in natural love…

exactly as we take each other…

and go to sleep…

As We Are So Wonderfully Done With Each Other

As We Are So Wonderfully Done With Each Other

 

As we are so wonderfully done with each other

We can walk into our separate sleep

on floors of music where the milkwhite cloak of childhood

lies

 

oh my love, my golden lark, my soft long doll

Your lips have splashed my dull house with print of flowers

My hands are crooked where the spilled over your dear

curving

 

It is good to be weary from that brilliant work

It is being God to feel your breathing under me

 

A water glass on the bureau fills with morning…

Don’t let anyone in to wake us

 

~Kenneth Patchen