REED-SONG A crescent moon Behind the pines, Where the river winds. The blackened trees On the long gray shore, That the day is no more. DIRGE A night of strange longing - Of dark unrest Has fallen over the sands. Like ghosts that are thronging, Arise and I see their hands. I hear a faint weeping; Autumn is dead; Withered the leaves on the ground. A gray mist is creeping Out of the north With the stealth of an Indian's hound. Helen Dudley SONGS FOR PLACES Old Mexico GUADALUPE No matter how you love me You cannot keep me home. I know the way to travel, Where the stone sails await the wind The mariners who made them, But when a wind from Heaven blows, And I shall hear them singing POPOCATAPETL Dusk, and the far volcano wears The valley glimmers like the sea, CUERNAVACA You would not keep me near you, You could not hold me far, And now it does not matter Where you are. My heart has long forgotten DURANGO The cactus candelabra Do you not know the desert And it is but a moment The time of cactus flowers. Before the dusty journey, Come share my April hours! ORIZABA Is it long to Orizaba? When I ask the carrier-pigeons, They don't know. There's a mountain I am seeking, Feathered all with snow. When I ask the valley orchids, They don't know. Like an orchid pale and folded, Like a snowy bird, That's the mountain I am seeking: Have you heard? You can see it on the sunrise When the clear winds blow. Is it far to Orizaba, Do you know? AMECAMECA I climb the sacred hillside Up through the evening blue: And if the gray church vanish, |