1883

1882
What terror to hold an angle
Of oneself that but itself
It sees:  it outscales death
In time's ceaseless present,
When breath's unwarranted
As well as all in all.

1881

1880

1879

1878

1877

1876

1875
Twixt eye and day
Is complicity;
The inscape of the seer
Is writ in what is seen:
So will a leaf and blade of grass
Wink to a passerby,
And a confederate tree
Lean to shade the sun. 

1874

1873

1872

1871

1870

1869

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 a 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