were
so unreal
Those palms looked to one from England.
I could reassure you they were not
Imaginary or some sort of art
Posing as palms
on a public shore.
SALISBURY CATHEDRAL
Astounding mass of stonework on grass,
Flat and rolled as one may often see
In England’s green and pleasant
land
Masonry to Our Lady a spire,
Tallest in the isle—no aspiration
Beyond a hope of heaven.
May no hubris
Undo our offering.
Once, a skeptic,
I ambled on your plain and saw
Your solemn cloister and the eloquent
Chaste fan vault of your chapter house
And hardly understood how such work
Could honor God who was supernal
Only older would I know
Architecture
can become a song.
CASTILLO DE SAN MARCOS
Old castle at Matanzas Bay you guard
Only your memories.
Your sturdy walls
Fashioned of coquina stone and proof
Against the rude assault of any foe—
Your stone absorbed a cannon ball at impact
And put a halt to its career.
Banners
Of four empires have floated over you
Imperial Spain, Great Britain and the short
Confederacy and today our own
Or should I say imperium of our States
Who love imperial fruit but not repute
How far apart from them
to stand
A tourist on a rampart of coquina
And look across a bay of Florida.
HALLS OF MONTEZUMA
Montezuma II how could you know
Rampant lust beyond even your wont
For gold?
How noble your broad avenue
How novel in your capital a cage
Of many birds chosen from a world
And canals of fluent imperial trade
O teocali towering above—
Home of a Sun you all adored—
Till Quetzalcoatl came to you one day
Cortez to us and brought you down
Your blood soaked altar vacant now
and now
Your history alluded to in song
Beyond that
who recalls your golden calendar
Your chocolatl or your pinioned cape?
PALM BEACH INLET
A solar afternoon and sand so hot
Soles would burn as you ran across it
O glory of young days
Parked illegally
Along an alleyway at a hotel
On the waterfront so I could lug
A Dacor scuba tank a short way
And stand before your shallows, your pump house
And rusty crane so picturesque
And admire girls whose bronzed skin
Sang of Florida and don my tank.
Sun and sand and sea all spoke of you
And won my soul to love
and as I sank
Among the warm, shallow waters I
Could hardly imagine any other.
DANZAS FANTASTICAS
Turina, music full of the warm south
For any European and for me
A warm escape into some paradise—
Not Paradise nor only memory
Of North Palm Beach and coconut palm trees
But somehow just partway—
my own idea
Almost divine, or half divine maybe—
A personal savor of Paradise.
A man could fancy he was almost God
But I would rather want a palm beach
I know I cannot have,
for such a moment
Approaches Paradise.
PADDLES AND PALMS
Some
