1868

1867

1866
The daughters of Puerto Rico are playing handball in the schoolyard;
Their limbs flash in noon light.
In an island in a city
There claps a sound of life in small palms
Like a truth recognized:
Their voices, their breath,
Their shouts of joy and contention,
Are suns and shades;
A bond and trick of memory.

1865

1864

1863

1862

1861

1860

1859

1858

1857

1856

1855

1854

1853

1852
With what grave certainty
Does this light fall without me.
What fatal issue lies
On a starling's back,
Or in the exhalation of tobacco
From a crowded woman's lips?
The word is not a sun,
But I am
Of symbols being.
The shadow darting of the bird,
Wants no observation,
Yet I am by this made,
In certain light.

1851

1850

1849

   1848

1847

1846

1845

1844

1843

1842
An invitation to an eye's
Cathedral surrender
Is a pattern on a wall,
Part-pattern of a larger,
Whose parts hold every stone expression
And compassing sky,
And fundament too to these:
What was reckoned is reckoning
Insensate and still.

1841

1840

1839

1838

1837

1836

1835

1834

1833

1832
A photo of a hat
And its face
That takes unseen for seen.
The shell's the frame,
And appurtenance host,
And least interior, most.

1831

1830

1829

1828

1827

1826
Let me the strewn tarots gather
Of fear and anger like unkempt
Hours at hazard fallen.
In hand gathered,
An inconsequential weight.

1825

1824

1823

1822

1821

1820