Kendall says: “I could never choose one, so here are a few. (Actually, 8.)”
A Way to Love GodHere is the shadow of truth, for only the shadow is true...
True LoveIn silence the heart raves. It utters words...
Love Song: I and ThouNothing is plumb, level or square...
May 24 1980I have braved for want of wild beasts steel cages
carved my term and nickname on bunks and rafters
lived by the sea flashed aces in an oasis
dined with the-devil-knows-whom in tails on truffles.
From the height of a glacier I beheld half a world the earthly
width. Twice have drowned thrice let knives rake my nitty-gritty.
Quit the country the bore and nursed me.
Those who forgot me would make a city.
I have waded the steppes that saw yelling Huns in saddles
worn the clothes nowadays back in fashion in every quarter
planted rye tarred the roofs of pigsties and stables
guzzled everything save dry water.
I've admitted the sentries' third eye into my wet and foul
dreams. Munched the bread of exile; it's stale and warty.
Granted my lungs all sounds except the howl;
switched to a whisper. Now I am forty.
What should I say about my life? That it's long and abhors transparence.
Broken eggs make me grieve; the omelette though makes me vomit.
Yet until brown clay has been rammed down my larynx
only gratitude will be gushing from it.
Balboa, the EntertainerI have braved for want of wild beasts steel cages...
The BaitCome live with me and be my love,
And we will some new pleasures prove,
Of golden sands and crystal brooks,
With silken lines and silver hooks.
There will the river whispering run,
Warmed by thine eyes more than the sun.
And there the enamored fish will stay,
Begging themselves they may betray.
When thou wilt swim in that live bath,
Each fish, which every channel hath,
Will amorously to thee swim,
Gladder to catch thee live, then thou him.
If thou, to be so seen, beest loath,
By sun or moon, thou darkenest both;
And if myself have leave to see,
I need not their light, having thee.
Let others freeze with angling reeds,
And cut their legs with shells and weeds,
Or treacherously poor fish beset
With strangling snare or windowy net;
Let coarse bold hands from slimy nest
The bedded fish in banks out-wrest.
Of curious traitors, sleave-silk flies,
Bewitch poor fishes' wandering eyes.
For thee, thou needest no such deceit,
For thou thyself art thine own bait;
That fish is not catched thereby,
Alas, is wiser far than I.
A Valediction: Forbidding MourningCome live with me and be my love...
Code Book LostWhat does the veery say, at dusk in shad-thicket...
How to Tell a Love StoryThere is a story that I must tell, but...
Last LaughThe little Sam Clemens, one night back in Hannibal...