the fields are green with sun and shade
pegasus strike your hoof
the silence sings, the people fade
hesperus light my roof
the ocean's wide and far away
tantalus drink your fill
no distant lands draw me astray
orpheus bring your skill
olympus is within my heart
poetry lift me high
with pagan joy I sing my art
melody till I die
challenge
tell me, in this high land of mountained length
where time is green and space big-bellied
with fruitful plains rockribbed by corn and bean
for simple courage, do you know strength
as something earned through bitterness of need
in narrow streets and tortured rooms, oh hungry lean
listen, above the winding road come sounds
descending on bells, sky voices and wind
mixing with the shy four footed ones' cries,
what do they tell, can you hear from the grounds
of city skyscrapers through the tunnelthinned
walls that rail the nervetracked brain with wooden ties
look you, whose eyes are wise with too much seen
through doors and windows, in whom the sunlight
is confined by steel canyons and arctic
nights, here is heart space, here clouds rise between
warm currents to open roofs, see how the height
of climb and width of free brightens to tropic
taste this, you tongue lovers, you gourmets, you
who know the ends for which the palette buds
bloom to burst on a thousand sauces, wines,
rare meats and molded cheeses, what brew
is this, what essence extracted from muds
and rooted origins of leaf that taste defines
breathe, ah breathe again, purge out the unclear
lungs, the downbent head, smell has other use
than multiplies in shop and factory
to substitute the sense, no need to fear
the pure air here, to hide subtle and obtuse
behind the mob's excuse, here the wind blows free