Section: «Poems»
Verse (ancient Greek ὁ στίχος — row, structure), a term in versification used in several meanings:
artistic speech organized by division into rhythmically commensurate segments; poetry in the narrow sense; in particular, it implies the properties of versification of a particular tradition ("antique verse", "Akhmatova's verse", etc.);
a line of poetic text organized according to a certain rhythmic pattern ("My uncle of the most honest rules").
The House Of Dust: Part 03: 08: Coffins: Interlude
Wind blows. Snow falls. The great clock in its towerTicks with reverberant coil and tolls the hour:At the deep sudden stroke the pigeons fly . . .The..
© Conrad Potter Aiken
The House Of Dust: Part 01: 02: One, From His High Bright Window In A Tower
One, from his high bright window in a tower,Leans out, as evening falls,And sees the advancing curtain of the showerSplashing its silver on roofs and..
© Conrad Potter Aiken
How To Accompany The Moon Without Walking
Harsh, harsh, the maram grass on the salt dune,seen by the cricket’s eye against the harbor moon,anchor-frost and seaward, the lighthouse moon—the..
© Conrad Potter Aiken
Nocturne Of Remembered Spring
I.Moonlight silvers the tops of trees,Moonlight whitens the lilac shadowed wallAnd through the evening fall,Clearly, as if through enchanted..
© Conrad Potter Aiken
Turns And Movies: Dancing Adairs
Behold me, in my chiffon, gauze, and tinsel,Flitting out of the shadow into the spotlight,And into the shadow again, without a whisper!--Firefly's my..
© Conrad Potter Aiken
Nightmare
'Draw three cards, and I will tell your future . . .Draw three cards, and lay them down,Rest your palms upon them, stare at the crystal,And think of..
© Conrad Potter Aiken
The House Of Dust: Part 01: 05: The Snow Floats Down Upon Us, Mingled With Rain
The snow floats down upon us, mingled with rain...It eddies around pale lilac lamps, and fallsDown golden-windowed walls.We were all born of flesh..
© Conrad Potter Aiken
The House Of Dust: Part 03: 13: The Half-Shut Doors Through Which We Heard That Music
The half-shut doors through which we heard that musicAre softly closed. Horns mutter down to silence.The stars whirl out, the night grows..
© Conrad Potter Aiken
Red Is The Color Of Blood
Red is the color of blood, and I will seek it:I have sought it in the grass.It is the color of steep sun seen through eyelids.It is hidden under the..
© Conrad Potter Aiken
Senlin: His Dark Origins
1Senlin sits before us, and we see him.He smokes his pipe before us, and we hear him.Is he small, with reddish hair,Does he light his pipe with..
© Conrad Potter Aiken
Senlin: His Futile Preoccupations
1I am a house, says Senlin, locked and darkened,Sealed from the sun with wall and door and blind.Summon me loudly, and you'll hear slow footstepsRing..
© Conrad Potter Aiken
Illicit
Of what she said to me that night—no matter.The strange thing came next day.My brain was full of music—something she played me;I couldn't remember it..
© Conrad Potter Aiken
From: Preludes For Memnon
LXIII read the primrose and the seaand remember nothingI read Arcturus and the snowand remember nothingI read the green and white book of springand..
© Conrad Potter Aiken
Dancing Adairs
Behold me, in my chiffon, gauze, and tinsel,Flitting out of the shadow into the spotlight,And into the shadow again, without a whisper!-Firefly's my..
© Conrad Potter Aiken
The House Of Dust: Part 03: 09: Cabaret
We sit together and talk, or smoke in silence.You say (but use no words) 'this night is passingAs other nights when we are dead will pass . ...
© Conrad Potter Aiken
Turns And Movies: Violet Moore And Bert Moore
He thinks her little feet should passWhere dandelions star thickly grass;Her hands should lift in sunlit airSea-wind should tangle up her hair.Green..
© Conrad Potter Aiken
Herman Melville
‘My towers at last!’—What meant the wordfrom what acknowledged circuit sprungand in the heart and on the tongueat sight of few familiar birdswhen..
© Conrad Potter Aiken
Duval's Birds
The parrot, screeching, flew out into the darkness,Circled three times above the upturned facesWith a great whir of brilliant outspread wings,And..
© Conrad Potter Aiken
The House Of Dust: Complete
I.The sun goes down in a cold pale flare of light.The trees grow dark: the shadows lean to the east:And lights wink out through the windows, one by..
© Conrad Potter Aiken
Miracles
Twilight is spacious, near things in it seem far,And distant things seem near.Now in the green west hangs a yellow star.And now across old waters you..
© Conrad Potter Aiken
The Carver
See, as the carver carves a rose,A wing, a toad, a serpent's eye,In cruel granite, to discloseThe soft things that in hardness lie,So this one..
© Conrad Potter Aiken
Exile
These hills are sandy. Trees are dwarfed here. CrowsCaw dismally in skies of an arid brilliance,Complain in dusty pine-trees. Yellow daybreakLights..
© Conrad Potter Aiken
Morning Song Of Senlin
It is morning, Senlin says, and in the morningWhen the light drips through the shutters like the dew,I arise, I face the sunrise,And do the things my..
© Conrad Potter Aiken
From: Time In The Rock
XXIVIf one voice, not another, must speak first,out of the silence, the stillness, the preceding—speaking clearly, speaking slowly, measuring..
© Conrad Potter Aiken
From: Time In The Rock
XXIVIf one voice, not another, must speak first,out of the silence, the stillness, the preceding—speaking clearly, speaking slowly, measuring..
© Conrad Potter Aiken