SNYDER, RIMBAUD, VERLAINE

A number of pieces from varying authors. Enjoy.

I Went Into the Maverick Bar
-Gary Snyder (Early 1970's)

I went into the Maverick Bar
In Farmington, New Mexico.
And drank double shots of bourbon
backed with beer.
My long hair was tucked up under a cap
I'd left the earring in the car.Two cowboys did horseplay
by the pool tables,
A waitress asked us
where are you from?
a country-and-western bend began to play
"We don't smoke Marijuana in Muskokie"
And with the next song,
a couple began to dance.They held each other like in High School dances
in the fifties;
I recalled when I worked in the woods
and the bars of Madras, Oregon.
They short-haired joy and roughness--
American--your stupidity.
I could almost love you again.We left--onto the freeway shoulders--
under the tough old stars--
In the shadow of bluffs
I came back to myself,
To the real work, to
"What is to be done."


La Lune Blanche
-Paul Verlaine (1872)

The white moonglow
shines on the trees;
from each bough
a voice flees
as the leaves move...Oh, my love.The pond reflects,
a mirror deep,
the black silhouette
of the willow tree
where the wind weeps...Oh, reverie.Now a tender
and vast appeasement
seems to descend
from the firmament
with the irised star...Ah, exquisite hour.


Sensation
-Arthur Rimbaud (1871)

On blue summer evenings I'll take to the paths.
Pricked by the corn, I'll tread the young grass,
I'll dream of its coolness under my feet.
My bare head will bask in the wind.
I shan't speak; I shan't even think,
But a love without limits will fill up my soul.
I'll go far, very far, a vagrant in the countryside
-- Happy, like a man with a woman.