Pleasant Things

M. Travis Lane
From:   Poems 1968-1970. Fiddlehead Books, 1973.

Yes, they are there of course,
     and might be the reason
          to keep on waking
if love didn't find one, always.

There's the day-frond seeking
          the pillow-angle,
     the night-light making
stars in the shadows, and waters
     tinting the wild snow.

It wouldn't do to know fully
   some things that are done.

But the moon keeps shaking
       the fish lanes; sun
         days are lovely,
     and children speaking
their natural fancy are lovely—

And forests and gardens
and all the green courses
where in the web keeps walking
            the evil man

         Scissoring what
    had not come to its end;
    the spoiler, the procurer,
that from our sons and daughters
     devises the daily show.

            Job at his end
       unreasonably prospered.
   losing the truth of his mortal horror;
"What," says the Lord from his iron hearses
   to ignorant weak and the sick in mercy
      "Can poor I do Who can only Know?"

Poem 1 | Poem 2 | Poem 3 | Poem 4 | Poem 5 | Poem 6 | Poem 7 | Poem 8 | Poem 9 | Poem 10 | Poem 11 | Poem 12 | Poem 13

M. Travis Lane's works copyright © to the author.