Poem by Delmore Schwartz

News of the Gold World of May

News of the Gold World of May in Holland Michigan:
"Wooden shoes will clatter again
      on freshly scrubbed streets—"

The tulip will arise and reign again from awnings and
   windows
          of all colors and forms
          its vine, verve and valentine curves

          upon the city streets, the public grounds
                       and private lawns
          (wherever it is conceivable
          that a bulb might take root
                       and the two lips, softly curved, come up
          possessed by the skilled love and will of a ballerina.)

The citizens will dance in folk dances.
          They will thump, they will pump,
          thudding and shoving
          elbow and thigh,
          bumping and laughing, like barrels and bells.

Vast fields of tulips in full bloom,
          the reproduction of a miniature Dutch village,
          part of a gigantic flower show.

1. All Night, All Night
2. In the Naked Bed, in Plato's Cave
3. Sonnet Suggested by Homer, Chaucer, Shakespeare, Edgar Allan Poe, Paul Vakzy, James Joyce, Et Al
4. Calmly We Walk Through This April's Day
5. For the One Who Would Take Man's Life in His Hands

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