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Voicework of CloudMountain
Alan Drake
Update: 2/3/07 at 9:01 PM
  Babette Deutsch

(1895 - 1982)

 
 
 
 
In August
from The Bookman Anthology of Verse.
John Ferrar, editor
George H. Doran, New York. 1925
 
Heat urges secret odors from the grass.
Blunting the edge of silence, crickets shrill.
Wings veer: inane needles of light, and pass.
Laced pools: the warm wood-shadows ebb and fill.
The wind is casual, loitering to crush
The sun upon his palate, and to draw
Pungence from pine, frank fragrances from brush,
Sucked up through thin grey boughs as through a straw.

Moss-green, fern-green and leaf and meadow-green
Are broken by the bare, bone-colored roads,
Less moved by stirring air than by unseen
Soft-footed ants and meditative toads.
Summer is passing, taking what she brings:
Green scents and sounds, and quick ephemeral wings.