The linchpin : ten poems, 1964-1967

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