NEPTUNE'S HORSES

UNDERthe sea, deep

on the ocean floor,
are their stables
and the drowned

fieldswhere they pasture

on weed green and red
or lift their necks
to crop the trees of kelp.

Sometimes they rise

when the great gales
howl and blow,
break to the surface

whinnying, tossing
the hair of their manes
and unkempt
tails. They kick

with mighty shuddering kick

our helpless ship.

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 PROLOGUE
SAIDBishop Cosmas,
The world is flat,
and that's that !
The Holy Word is explicit
that Christ will come and visit it
again, when all mankind shall be
illumined by the Light will shine
from His Countenance Divine;
and if the Light touch on a ball,
the heathen will not see at all !

That is not so,

said Augustine,
the world is round,
for I have seen
from my tower above the sea
the ocean of infinity,
and watched the far horizon sweep
in one great arc from deep to deep.
And Christ His Word has this great merit:
the things of spirit are seen by spirit !

3
 LANDFALL [21

NO loud compelling angelus clangs here;

only the silver bells of swinging stars;
the forest answers: the bright chime
of insects in their lairs.

The light of flambeaux burning on the beach

writhes across the water to our ship
which seems to point sharp swords of liquid gold;
laughter is heard, from the naked Indians.

And I must time my breathing with the waves;

each lifts us gently now and shoreward runs
to scrabble there with phosphorescentnails
'where travail ends and Paradise begins.
 COMES FOG AND MIST
. and all the sails hang limp.

The ship is the core of a pearl;

we are enclosed.

Lord God, the mist; there is no need of it

here on your ocean sea, for we
are already lost.

It has its
mysterious sound, and you call
the softest murmur of a girl's
lips speech, then this is all

one continuous whisper whispering ...

Here fine gold hair upon my wrist

grows pearls.

Lord God, the mist,

and we, already lost.