<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</SPAN></span>
<h2 class="nobreak">SEAWEED FROM MARS</h2>
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<h3>I</h3></div>
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<div class="verse"><div class="drop-cap">“HAVE you ever played on a violin</div>
</div>
<div class="verse">Larger than ten thousand stars</div>
<div class="verse">And warmer than what you call sin?”</div>
<div class="verse">Torban, a young man from Mars,</div>
<div class="verse">Gave me the stretch of his voice,</div>
<div class="verse">And my “no” fell down like a pin</div>
<div class="verse">On the echoed din of his words.</div>
<div class="verse">He said: “Then I have no choice.</div>
<div class="verse">I must use the barrenly involved</div>
<div class="verse">Words with which you have not solved</div>
<div class="verse">The wistful riddles of your days.</div>
<div class="verse">Leave the pale and ruddy herds</div>
<div class="verse">Of men, with their surrendering ways,</div>
<div class="verse">And come with me to Mars.”</div>
</div>
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<h3>II</h3></div>
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<div class="verse"><span class="giant">D</span>RUMS of Autumn beat on Mars,</div>
<div class="verse">Calling our minds to reunion.</div>
<div class="verse">The avenues of seaweed spars</div>
<div class="verse">Have attained a paleness</div>
<div class="verse">Equal to that of earthly philosophies,</div>
<div class="verse">And the trees have lost</div>
<div class="verse">The diamond violence of Spring.</div>
<div class="verse">Their purple leaves have turned to grey</div>
<div class="verse">Just as a human religion</div>
<div class="verse">Gradually changes to pretence.</div>
<div class="verse">In Mars we have only two seasons,</div>
<div class="verse">Spring and Autumn—their reasons</div>
<div class="verse">Rest in a treacherous sun</div>
<div class="verse">That suddenly runs away,</div>
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</SPAN></span>
<div class="verse">Creating a twilight-suspense.</div>
<div class="verse">When the sun reappears</div>
<div class="verse">Mars is once more amazed</div>
<div class="verse">By the blazing flatteries of Spring.</div>
<div class="verse">Again the heavy leaves ring</div>
<div class="verse">With odor and light deftly pressed</div>
<div class="verse">Into a stormy chorus.</div>
<div class="verse">Then we abandon the screaming violins</div>
<div class="verse">Of our minds, and each man wins</div>
<div class="verse">An understanding rest.</div>
<div class="verse">Once more we roam and jest</div>
<div class="verse">Upon the avenues, with voices</div>
<div class="verse">One shade louder than the leaves,</div>
<div class="verse">Or sail upon the choral seas</div>
<div class="verse">And trade our words with molten ease.</div>
<div class="verse">Throughout the Autumn we stand</div>
<div class="verse">Still and deserted, while our minds</div>
<div class="verse">Leap into sweeping tensions</div>
<div class="verse">Blending sound and form</div>
<div class="verse">Into one search across the universe.</div>
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<h3>III</h3></div>
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<div class="verse"><span class="giant">W</span>HAT do we find in this search?</div>
<div class="verse">All of your earthly words lurch</div>
<div class="verse">Feebly upon the outskirts of my mind,</div>
<div class="verse">And when they pass beyond them, they are blind.</div>
<div class="verse">Outward forms are but the graves</div>
<div class="verse">Of sound, and all the different waves</div>
<div class="verse">Of light and odor, they are sound</div>
<div class="verse">That floats unshaped and loosely gowned.</div>
<div class="verse">When sound is broken into parts</div>
<div class="verse">Your ears receive the smaller arts,</div>
<div class="verse">But when it drifts in broad release</div>
<div class="verse">You cannot hear its louder peace.</div>
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</SPAN></span>
<div class="verse">Your houses, hills, and flesh of red</div>
<div class="verse">Are shapes of sound, asleep or dead.</div>
<div class="verse">In Mars a stronger Spring of sound</div>
<div class="verse">Revives our forms and makes Profound</div>
<div class="verse">Music, softer than the dins</div>
<div class="verse">That rose from Autumn violins.</div>
<div class="verse">Our minds, whose tense excursions spread</div>
<div class="verse">In chase of noisy walls that fled,</div>
<div class="verse">Relent and drop within our heads,</div>
<div class="verse">Enjoying the timid sound of their beds.</div>
<div class="verse">Filled with a gracious weariness,</div>
<div class="verse">We place it, like a lighter dress,</div>
<div class="verse">Upon the sounds from other stars</div>
<div class="verse">Brought back to celebrate on Mars.</div>
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<div class="stanza">
<h3>IV</h3></div>
<div class="stanza">
<div class="verse"><span class="giant">A</span> GIRL of Mars is burning</div>
<div class="verse">Notes of thought within her throat.</div>
<div class="verse">Her pale white lips are turning</div>
<div class="verse">The fire to storied chords.</div>
<div class="verse">The song is old but often made</div>
<div class="verse">By girls who sit in Spring and braid</div>
<div class="verse">The lanterned language of their hair.</div>
<div class="verse">Its spacious gaiety cannot be sold</div>
<div class="verse">To your narrow glow of words.</div>
<div class="verse">The hint that I shall give is cold</div>
<div class="verse">And like the sound of snowy air.</div>
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<div class="verse"><i>I shall journey with the men</i></div>
<div class="verse"><i>When my curling thoughts are ten.</i></div>
<div class="verse"><i>O the sternness of that number!</i></div>
<div class="verse"><i>Colored sounds from breath to umber</i></div>
<div class="verse"><i>Promising a first release.</i></div>
<div class="verse"><i>I have dwelt too long in peace</i></div>
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</SPAN></span>
<div class="verse"><i>Placing smallness on my breast.</i></div>
<div class="verse"><i>The prisoned whisper of my skin</i></div>
<div class="verse"><i>Longs to vanish in the din</i></div>
<div class="verse"><i>Of Autumn when great sounds are caught.</i></div>
<div class="verse"><i>Let the tall wildness of my thought</i></div>
<div class="verse"><i>Stride beside the thundering grace</i></div>
<div class="verse"><i>Of the man whose spring-time face</i></div>
<div class="verse"><i>Brought me tiny notes of rest.</i></div>
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<div class="verse">She sits within a house of stone</div>
<div class="verse">That lends a wise and balanced tone:</div>
<div class="verse">A roofless house whose walls are low</div>
<div class="verse">And level with her head’s grey glow.</div>
<div class="verse">The bright sounds of her parents fly</div>
<div class="verse">Around the house—we do not die</div>
<div class="verse">In Mars, but change to gleams of sounds</div>
<div class="verse">And stay within our gayer rounds</div>
<div class="verse">Until when tired Spring has gone</div>
<div class="verse">We lead the Autumn searchers on.</div>
<div class="verse">Before we change, our bodies curve</div>
<div class="verse">Like yours save that our skins are gray:</div>
<div class="verse">Light shades of gray that almost swerve</div>
<div class="verse">To white, like earthly men who pray.</div>
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<h3>V</h3></div>
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<div class="verse"><span class="giant">W</span>E do not love and hate in Mars.</div>
<div class="verse">These earthly cries are flashing bars</div>
<div class="verse">Of sound from which our minds are free.</div>
<div class="verse">They stand in our mythology:</div>
<div class="verse">Legends elusive and weird,</div>
<div class="verse">Acrid Gods that once were feared.</div>
<div class="verse">They vanished imperceptibly</div>
<div class="verse">And none among us can agree</div>
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</SPAN></span>
<div class="verse">Upon the tangled way in which they fled.</div>
<div class="verse">Starlit symbols of dread,</div>
<div class="verse">They slowly exhausted themselves and died</div>
<div class="verse">In striding heralds of a wilder bride.</div>
<div class="verse">We have no emotions in Mars.</div>
<div class="verse">They are like long-healed wounds</div>
<div class="verse">Whose scars are softened by the gleam of our minds.</div>
<div class="verse">We approach them with clearer kinds</div>
<div class="verse">Of sound from deeply resting thought.</div>
<div class="verse">Our youths and maidens have not caught</div>
<div class="verse">The treacherous and tightly bound</div>
<div class="verse">Confusion of your loving sound,</div>
<div class="verse">For sex to us is but the ring</div>
<div class="verse">Of different shades of thought in Spring</div>
<div class="verse">When men recline upon the breast</div>
<div class="verse">Of women, dissolving into thoughtful rest.</div>
<div class="verse">In Autumn sex is left behind.</div>
<div class="verse">Men and women no longer lined</div>
<div class="verse">By different bodies raise their dins</div>
<div class="verse">Above the screaming violins.</div>
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