I wonder now, before the stars are out
And long black clouds have filled the sunset sky,
Will I remember this at midnight hour:
How much I longed to be aboard that ship!
ECHO
Oh, weary heart, dependent for a song
On whether someone smiles or not at thee.
Oh, weary life, the loveless years are long
Yet deathless are the thoughts of him to me.
Within an ancient castle on the coast,
Where all the sea-dead sailor lads make moan,
I hear a melancholy cello sing
Its mad and mournful music to the moon,
A dirge of febrile beauty and despair
That fills the night with phantom, frantic song.
And phrase to phrase with sexual life responds
While fierce satyriasis, orchestrally,
Like nine symphonic horns unharmonized
Calls wildly through the hollows of my heart.
STAR COURSE
Into the darkening east we ride,
Wave upon wave we thrust aside,
White and defiant they seethe around.
What do we care! We’re homeward bound!
The sea beneath and the sky above,
These are the things a man can love,
Not when he leaves his native shore,
But when, far out of the sight of land,
He takes the wheel with a steady hand
To guide him home once more.
Then homeward, homeward be my course,
And constant be my star,
For I have wandered east and west
And I have wandered far,
Yet home and joy can only be
Where love and friendship are.
I’ve searched among the isles of men
The love I left behind,
Explored for friendships in the waste
Of broken, humankind,
And sought for beauty, sought for wit,
With naught of all to find.