ADVICE TO A POOL

Be a liquid threshold for the dawn

And let night touch you with his back.

The earth-bowl prisoning you, and cold night winds

Are only pause and rhythm

Within an endless fantasy,

But you, like they, can be

A dream from the loins of a dream,

And build a golden stairway of escape.

O coolly unperturbed pool,

Slap your ripples in laughter at men,

Who splash you with their lordly hands.

Time is but a phantom dagger

That motion lifts to slay itself.