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 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

God’s Acre

In Memory Of. In Fondest Recollection Of.In Loving Memory Of. In FondRemembrance. Died in October. Died at Sea.Who died at sea? The name of the..

© Conrad Potter Aiken

Haunted Chambers

The lamp-lit page is turned, the dream forgotten;The music changes tone, you wake, rememberDeep worlds you lived before, deep worlds hereafterOf leaf..

© Conrad Potter Aiken

Chance Meetings

In the mazes of loitering people, the watchful and furtive,The shadows of tree-trunks and shadows of leaves,In the drowse of the sunlight, among the..

© Conrad Potter Aiken

Asphalt

Light your cigarette, then, in this shadow,And talk to her, your arm engaged with hers.Heavily over your heads the eaten mapleIn the dead air of..

© Conrad Potter Aiken

The House Of Dust: Part 01: 08: The White Fog Creeps From The Cold Sea Over The City

The white fog creeps from the cold sea over the city,Over the pale grey tumbled towers,—And settles among the roofs, the pale grey walls.Along damp..

© Conrad Potter Aiken

Bread And Music

Music I heard with you was more than music,And bread I broke with you was more than bread;Now that I am without you, all is desolate;All that was..

© Conrad Potter Aiken

Goya

Goya drew a pig on a wall.The five-year-old hairdresser’s sonSaw, graved on a silver tray,The lion; and sunsets were begun.Goya smelt the bull-fight..

© Conrad Potter Aiken

Dead Cleopatra

Dead Cleopatra lies in a crystal casket,Wrapped and spiced by the cunningest of hands.Around her neck they have put a golden necklaceHer tatbebs, it..

© Conrad Potter Aiken

Zudora

Here on the pale beach, in the darkness;With the full moon just to rise;They sit alone, and look over the sea,Or into each other's eyes. . .She pokes..

© Conrad Potter Aiken

The House Of Dust: Part 02: 11: Snow Falls. The Sky Is Grey, And Sullenly Glares

Snow falls. The sky is grey, and sullenly glaresWith purple lights in the canyoned street.The fiery sign on the dark tower wreathes and flares...The..

© Conrad Potter Aiken

Hatteras Calling

Southeast, and storm, and every weather vaneshivers and moans upon its dripping pin,ragged on chimneys the cloud whips, the rainhowls at the flues..

© Conrad Potter Aiken

Improvisations: Light And Snow

IThe girl in the room beneathBefore going to bedStrums on a mandolinThe three simple tunes she knows.How inadequate they are to tell how her heart..

© Conrad Potter Aiken

A Letter From Li Po

Fanfare of northwest wind, a bluejay windannounces autumn, and the equinoxrolls back blue bays to a far afternoon.Somewhere beyond the Gorge Li Po is..

© Conrad Potter Aiken

Evening Song Of Senlin

from Senlin: A BiographyIt is moonlight. Alone in the silenceI ascend my stairs once more,While waves, remote in a pale blue starlight,Crash on a..

© Conrad Potter Aiken

Chiaroscuro: Rose

HeFill your bowl with roses: the bowl, too, have of crystal.Sit at the western window. Take the sunBetween your hands like a ball of flaming..

© Conrad Potter Aiken

Discordants

I. (Bread and Music)Music I heard with you was more than music,And bread I broke with you was more than bread;Now that I am without you, all is..

© Conrad Potter Aiken

Music I Heard

Music I heard with you was more than music,And bread I broke with you was more than bread;Now that I am without you, all is desolate;All that was..

© Conrad Potter Aiken

Beloved, Let Us Once More Praise The Rain

Beloved, let us once more praise the rain.Let us discover some new alphabet,For this, the often praised; and be ourselves,The rain, the chickweed..

© Conrad Potter Aiken

All Lovely Things

All lovely things will have an ending,All lovely things will fade and die,And youth, that's now so bravely spending,Will beg a penny by and by.Fine..

© Conrad Potter Aiken

Annihilation

While the blue noon above us arches,And the poplar sheds disconsolate leaves,Tell me again why love bewitches,And what love gives.It is the trembling..

© Conrad Potter Aiken