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Who ever loved, that loved not at first sight?

Love’s Philosophy

PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY

The fountains mingle with the river

And the rivers with the Ocean,

The winds of Heaven mix for ever

With a sweet emotion;

Nothing in the world is single;

All things by a law divine

In one spirit meet and mingle.

Why not I with thine?—

See the mountains kiss high Heaven

And the waves clasp one another;

No sister-flower would be forgiven

If it disdained its brother;

And the sunlight clasps the earth

And the moonbeams kiss the sea:

What is all this sweet work worth

If thou kiss not me?

Having a Coke with You

FRANK O’HARA

is even more fun than going to San Sebastian, Irún, Hendaye,

Biarritz, Bayonne

or being sick to my stomach on the Travesera de Gracia in

Barcelona

partly because in your orange shirt you look like a better happier

St. Sebastian

partly because of my love for you, partly because of your love for

yoghurt

partly because of the fluorescent orange tulips around the birches

partly because of the secrecy our smiles take on before people

and statuary

it is hard to believe when I’m with you that there can be

anything as still

as solemn as unpleasantly definitive as statuary when right in

front of it

in the warm New York 4 o’clock light we are drifting back and

forth

between each other like a tree breathing through its spectacles

and the portrait show seems to have no faces in it at all, just

paint

you suddenly wonder why in the world anyone ever did them

I look

at you and I would rather look at you than all the portraits in

the world

except possibly for the Polish Rider occasionally and anyway it’s in

the Frick

which thank heavens you haven’t gone to yet so we can go

together the first time

and the fact that you move so beautifully more or less takes care

of Futurism

just as at home I never think of the Nude Descending a Staircase

or

at a rehearsal a single drawing of Leonardo or Michelangelo that

used to wow me

and what good does all the research of the Impressionists do

them

when they never got the right person to stand near the tree when

the sun sank

or for that matter Marino Marini when he didn’t pick the rider

as carefully

as the horse

it seems they were all cheated of some marvellous

experience

which is not going to go wasted on me which is why I’m telling

you about it

Symptom Recital

DOROTHY PARKER

I do not like my state of mind;

I’m bitter, querulous, unkind.

I hate my legs, I hate my hands,

I do not yearn for lovelier lands.

I dread the dawn’s recurrent light;

I hate to go to bed at night.

I snoot at simple, earnest folk.

I cannot take the gentlest joke.

I find no peace in paint or type.

My world is but a lot of tripe.

I’m disillusioned, empty-breasted.

For what I think, I’d be arrested.

I am not sick, I am not well.

My quondam dreams are shot to hell.

My soul is crushed, my spirit sore;

I do not like me any more.

I cavil, quarrel, grumble, grouse.

I ponder on the narrow house.

I shudder at the thought of men . . .

I’m due to fall in love again.

To Aphrodite of the Flowers, at Knossos

SAPPHO

Leave Crete and come to this holy temple

where the pleasant grove of apple trees

circles an altar smoking with frank-

incense.

Here roses leave shadow on the ground

and cold springs babble through apple branches

where shuddering leaves pour down pro-

found sleep.

In our meadow where horses graze

and wild flowers of spring blossom,

anise shoots fill the air with a-

roma.

And here, Queen Aphrodite, pour

heavenly nectar into gold cups

and fill them gracefully with sud-

den joy.

Come to the Orchard in Spring

RUMI

Come to the orchard in Spring.

There is light and wine, and sweethearts

in the pomegranate flowers.

If you do not come, these do not matter.

If you do come, these do not matter.

MAKING LOVE

MY CHILDREN WERE HORRIFIED to see the words “Making Love” in the Contents for this book. After all, there are few things more disturbing than the idea of your parents