"Veined and lustrous, ringed with pearl and azure,
With amber flecked, and orange and black,
Marvellous is the house of his abiding,
The curved, frail mansion on his glistening back."
- "The Snail"
#PoetryMatters #snail @TheSpineView
A re-post, but it fits the tag ??
There's a wonderful reading of the full poem here: https://youtu.be/HsSACOVsCdA
Frost in the ruined tree
Sparkles and sings:
A thousand phantom birds
Preen ghostly wings,
Wings that murmur and flit
The dead leaves among...
The thousand phantom songs
Have all been sung.
- "Frost Music"
#poetrymatters #song @TheSpineView
Veined and lustrous, ringed with pearl and azure,
With amber flecked, and orange and black,
Marvellous is the house of his abiding,
The curved, frail mansion on his glistening back.
- "The Snail"
This I have known, and these have come again
With echoing happiness in heart and brain;
Time standing still, surrendering to me
Beauty that otherwise would cease to be.
- "Time Stands"
Let us reach out before our life is done,
Challenging fate
For one experience beneath the sun
We dare not formulate.
- "Experience"
In a cool solitude of trees
Where leaves and birds a music spin,
Mind that was weary is at ease,
New rhythms in the soul begin.
pick"The Cats of Rome" contains nature poetry and reflections upon love, life and death. This was Seymour's last book, published in his 83rd year, five years prior to his death in 1975, so there is a feeling of youth gone, but not lost to memory, and of endings, and also of love and compassion.
This was a lucky find, one of those books that justifies the hours spent rummaging amongst dusty stacks seeking for some forgotten or unknown literary jewel.
The Cats of Rome: New and Selected Poems | 
