The Road to the Spring: Collected Poems of Mary Austin

Charm Strings

352 Charm Strings Carmel Beaches Moon glistered, naked shouldered dunes Run up, hill pointed in the land wind, Run down, wave hollowed in the sea gusts. Frail umbels of sand verbena, yellow and lilac, Strive with yesterday’s shapes of crest or hollow, But the beach grass subdues equally Moon whiteness and undulant contour By its unimpeachable virtue of dullness. Santa Barbara Between sea smelling windrows of weed The ripple runners, the skimmers of foam, Shearlings, black curlews, sandpipers Nest under land adventuring grasses That have still the sea’s habit of bowing and flowing. San Diego White lady faces of chamise Bowing and lifting make decorous response To the sea’s prophecy And about their knees, Where yellow violets run goldenly, The flick of rosaries. San Isidro Red hills, robin breasted And the young tamarisk’s feathering green. 353 No grief can come But I shall still be glad remembering How the young robins sang At San Isidro on the Jemez river. Editor’s Notes AU 64; two of these poems were published in El Palacio: “San Jacinto” and “Ensenada Todos Santos”; see Magazine and Periodical Publications. San Isidro is now spelled San Ysidro, a small but ancient village on the Jemez River in Sandoval County, New Mexico. ...