A poem by HARRY OWEN

Deliciously dizzy sunswept afternoons
Spent diving and dipping through dark red lagoons
And searching and swimming through cosmical lakes
Cause crawls on our knees without solving the ache
Which lures bruised brutes from suburbia’s safety,
Turns wisest of owls so hummingbird-hasty,
Spills silver glass swills for a grape from the vine
And shuns Mummy’s door.  Jungle order is mine.

Deliciously dizzy sunswept afternoons;
The heat of the heath makes the steady-head swoon:
Through forests we’ll bound, weave together the trees,
And languidly wilt as rush melts into ease.
The earth’s revolutions are stopped and forgot
When a lone drifting speck collides a like spot;
Slipping their mantels, planets cascade the void
And our red lagoon is the sun of all joy. 

Deliciously dizzy sunswept afternoons!
Return to your wood before this monthly moon!
Who knows this round path and its magnetic clutch
Which entices the wounded with seraphic touch?
Pierce darkest of caves with a faint dart of light,
Dabble dirt paths and tracks, embrace faint delight
And we’ll frisk like Spring bats ‘til night smothers all
In shadow: the dark shall not scare or appal.

CategoriesHarry Owen Read