Monday, April 4, 2022

GENEVIEVE TAGGARD ~

 



Remembering Vaughan in New England


I saw reality the other night,

By New England moon-light.


All of my life, living has been

One or another kind of dream.


Now, nothing festooned itself between

Me, and the substance of moon-beam.


The land is honest, small and swept

Bare as a barn-yard floor


In winter. And no third thing crept

As it had, times before.


No feeling, its mist to intervene,

No inner thought to warp . . .


I stood: and behold, the trees were lean,

And lo ! the hills were sharp.


Moon's no ephemeral faint stuff

First seen, painted upon


Windows and walls . . . it is yellow as dawn,

After dream, it is marvelous rough,


Coarse as hoar-frost . . . texture no dream

Can invent.

                     Cut my vague dream away !

Moon in New England, O pure moon-beam,


Let it be day.



___________________________

Genevieve Taggard

Remembering Vaughn in New England

Arrow Editions, 1933