White darkness—
An expressionless horizon stares with stone eyes.
The sea lifts its immense self heavily
And falls down in sickly might.
The emptiness is like a death of which no one shall ever know.
SHIP MASTS
They stand
Stark as church spires;
Bare stalks
That will blossom
(Tomorrow perhaps)
Into flowers of the wind.
MONOCHROME
Gray water,
Gray sky drifting down to the sea.
The night,
Old, ugly, and stern,
Lies upon the water,
Quivering in the twilight
Like a tortured belly.
ANTIQUE
Clouds flung back
Make fan-shaped rays of faded crimson
Brocaded on dim blue satin;
Through the wrinkled dust-blue water
The little boat
Glides above its sunken shadow.
ECHO LOOKS AT HERSELF
The ship passes in the night
And drags jagged reflections
Like gilded combs
Through the obscure water.
Spun glass daisies float on a gold-washed mirror.