Images of Life and Death
Reading edition
Maxwell Bodenheim
Life
I.
The sky is the thin, strong expanse of a God, And the trees are lines of black Hindus Praying in black shrivelled attitudes.
II.
The grass is a priest in dream-gold cloth, Lying on his back, hard with years of thought-spinning. The lateral-gray, snarled clouds over him Are the thoughts he has solemnly woven.
III.
The slender lagoon holds the laughter of a child With his lips to a huge, full cup.
Death
I.
A fan of smoke, in the long, green-white reverie of the horizon, Slowly curls apart. So shall I rise and widen out in the silence of air.
II.
An old man runs down a little yellow road To an out-flung, white thicket uncovered by morning. So shall I swing to the white sharpness of death.