THE LINCHPIN
TEN POEMS
[ 3964-1967 ]
by
George Thaniel
£$&
ANTHELION PRESS Montreal/1969
THE LIXCJIPIX
Copyright 1969 by Oeorge Thaniel
Printed t* Cbk/h*/»
THE LINCHPIN
TEN POEMS
f 1964-1967 J
by
Ckorge Thaniel
ANTKELION PRESS
Montreal / 1969
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2011
http://www.archive.org/details/linchpintenpoemsOOthan
For Albert
> i
I adore and cherish you, erected arm of thought, pink, yellow and green, ■potential flesh with ivory bones, roof of sucked brittle stone, hitch-hiker of the long way.
J»- t PICNIC
Barbecued beef on a warm spring day
on the fringe of the lake
with the galaxy of grasshoppers,
brick oven bread with maple syrup
on the dandelions by the dozing barn
with its own strange identity,
country dancing and singing displays,
while the air thickens in a home-made cake,
half-xoay the crimson tulip
of our secret longings.
fs- 3
Great empires pass away, but good Amanda will ever slay in her romantic waiting-room, eager to meet her bridegroom.
Let Sappho roll down the rocks; let Corydon weep over Alexis loci:*. Amanda knitting cute moccasins unll redeem //.*-■ of our SMM.
> 4
My beloved dead
make their simple beds
under these cedar trees,
that came from distant Lebanon,
all the waif on rafts,
came through the ocean,
to scent and shade my dead
from old frosty times,
cradled by Rack'* divine music
in canoes, and chariots,
that swing hue.
> 5
Squirrels decorate the park scampering all around, rolling nuts about the grass, climbing tl\e trees carelessly.
A passer's-lry cautious pace doesn't seem to scare them at all; trailing their royal tails cross and recross the green landscape,
while the passer, deep in thought,
cautiously raises hi.s liand
to ring the bell of a grey house
on this equally grey morning of October.
)» 6
We shared our seat; later our loneliness. At night we sleepwalked miles of purple sandstone. A pony sniffed in the dark — the train turned into a pony.
y 7
The summer stressed the growth of spring; naked birds ascend the rugged stairs — their goal being heaven.
All year round these birds
had breakfast only; dropping the other meals
in the hollow basket of their voice.
They made an easy toay of hunger and thirst, ignored the funerals passing in solemn procession.* under a sullen sky — a rainbow of dunt anil dizzy sounds.
Slov down, you, birds of summer, nu haw to «inq.
}■<■ 8 GREENWICH VILLAGE
Sugar canes still grow there and partridges are left unshot; pinned on the street lamps old Voltaire smiles roguishly; the pagan gods, once again, in long jeans and scaly beards sip their drinks in the bars, trading foxskins for chestnuts skirting post mortem issues.
J> 0 A STATUE
Your eyes have a mercurial light
in their deep-set holes.
You cam* out of stone,
fluid, milky, turquoise stow,
amid the surge of laughter,
an accident of the perpetual design.
You came out of darkness, from the unnamed grapes, pressed in a sudden drought of wine iti uTijent wed of bring drunk,
not in a hitter pub, not in a stale restaurant but in the candid peristyle of a wealthy Roman villa.
}> JO A MODERN DIDO
Deserted Dido climbed the pyre; pius Aeneas changed the tire and drove forth to his destination h found a new powerful nation.
Fate willed for you simpler goals but truer to Nature; -in virtuous botch you mix every day's trustful wins — exotic drinks is not your line.
A common ble?sing is still the fall rain; the breath of time soothes all pain. A ni so be it forever; forgive, let Dido change her mind and Ha-\
CONTENTS
J adore and cherish you / 1
PICNIC / S
Cheat empires pass away / S
My beloved dead / 4
Siruirreh decorate ine park / §
We shared our seal / 6
The summer stressed the growth of spring / 7
GREENWICH VILLAGE / 8
A STATUE / 9
A MODm DIDO / 10
*
The
Linchpin
ten
poems
written
in
Ontario
from
1994
to
1967
by
George Thaniel
Set printed
&
bound
at the
ANTHELION
PRESS
Montreal
in Febrxtary & March
1989
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