American poet & translator (1881-1968)
I keep my closet neat now,
The skeleton well covered.
But when you even walk by the locked door,
The breezes of your look
Stir what hangs inside--
And I wonder what you are hearing
When those knee-bones knock together.
WITTER BYNNER
"The Skeleton"
Dusk came over the hill to me,
Holding a red moon,
And I danced with her,
Feeling and following her starry steps,
Till she turned and gave the moon
To the swarthy night--
And slipped away without explaining.
WITTER BYNNER
"Dusk"
Between your laughter and mine
Lies the shadow of the sword of change.
WITTER BYNNER
"Crystal"
Only I and the sunset
In the snow-valley of your breast
And the slow shadows of the motion of your breath,
Only I and moonrise in the valley of your breast
And the dark of sleep ...
Until lilies in the valley have opened,
And I am awake with petals
And with the birds of your voice.
WITTER BYNNER
"The Valley"
None of the weary words they say
Remain with me,
I am borne like a wave of the sea
Towards worlds to be.
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The New World
Words are hoops
Through which to leap upon meanings,
Which are horses' backs,
Bare, moving.
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"Horses"
In one mingled soul reside
All times and places. On a tide
Of mist and azure air
We journey toward that soul, through circumstance,
Until at last we fully care and dare
To make within ourselves divinity.
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The New World
But O the mad heart, it is beating! and beauty seems lastingly bright,
As if it could never go fleeting afar on the feet of delight,
And be lost in the thicket of night!
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"The Interval"
From wonder into wonder existence opens.
WITTER BYNNER
translation of Laozi's "Tao Te Ching"