Advice: A Book of Poems

<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</SPAN></span> <h2 class="nobreak">RATTLE-SNAKE MOUNTAIN DIALOGUE</h2> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse"><span class="smcap">Rattle-Snake Mountain</span></div> <div class="verse">Every night the sky grips my shoulder, in pain.</div> <div class="verse">The cows upon my slope</div> <div class="verse">Attack their blades of grass with less decision.</div> <div class="verse">The boulders reaching in to form my ribs,</div> <div class="verse">Are touched by evening dizziness, to dust,</div> <div class="verse">And lose their fierce pretence of hardness.</div> <div class="verse">Three crows in a row</div> <div class="verse">Search for clearer tongues, with steady discords.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse"><span class="smcap">Man</span></div> <div class="verse">The nervous dissolution</div> <div class="verse">Which men call beauty stands</div> <div class="verse">Sternly watching itself.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse"><span class="smcap">Rattle-Snake Mountain</span></div> <div class="verse">Evening, staggering under dead men&#8217;s tongues,</div> <div class="verse">Makes light of my loneliness.</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</SPAN></span> <div class="verse">He comes like a madman dissolved</div> <div class="verse">Into unbearable quietness.</div> <div class="verse">But, drinking my vigorous muteness,</div> <div class="verse">He melts into that stream of seeking motion</div> <div class="verse">Which men call morning.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse"><span class="smcap">Man</span></div> <div class="verse">You teach him to make his recompense</div> <div class="verse">A solitary unfolding</div> <div class="verse">Walking perilously</div> <div class="verse">Between the scowls of life and death.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse"><span class="smcap">Rattle-Snake Mountain</span></div> <div class="verse">When he goes he is something more than himself.</div> <div class="verse">He holds a lean alertness</div> <div class="verse">That, green as any leaf,</div> <div class="verse">Takes the flutterings of life, unperturbed.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse"><span class="smcap">Man</span></div> <div class="verse">Beauty is a proud stare</div> <div class="verse">Challenging all things to remove</div> <div class="verse">Their inattentive clamours:</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</SPAN></span> <div class="verse">And some things bow abruptly,</div> <div class="verse">Timidly stroking their untouched skins.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse"><span class="smcap">Rattle-Snake Mountain</span></div> <div class="verse">And thus evening bows into morning.</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />