Against the Evidence: Selected Poems, 1934–1994

The Years of Loss

and I leave behind my skull in their dreams, hands to mouths. It is because they have no help, as if to hint to them the way, if they would understand. When we played it was to love each other in games. Play again and love me until I really die, when you are old on a flight of stairs. Earth Hard Earth hard to my heels bear me up like a child standing on its mother's belly. I am a surprised guest to the air. The Years of Loss I love the beginning, always a promise. I love the middle period when all are committed and I love the years ofclimax when the beginning ispossessed in the face and the years ofloss in evidence. In a Dream I Out of a crowd he steps towards the iron gate surrounding the fountain and recites to himself between the bars two lines of a poem 56 | Poems of the 1960s ...