Hart Crane Homeward Bound XV

For C.

Are you awake my lovely to the sun

that ties the bow of radiance upon the night

presents us with the morning and the audience

of a tree or two, then the shops across with

mannequins, early workers, the crows and

the blackbirds, as the stage of day opens

into the consciousness,

Are you awake my lovely to the rays of

light that describe the morning narrative

like paint by numbers, filling in form and feature,

as all life from the greyness of sleepiness

now animated, like the feline friend with a paw

taking with meticulous and loving attention

the strands of your hair, so begins the day

Are you awake my lovely to the presence

of my words, that in my absence colour and shade

my love, as you lay for a moment in bed, stretch

and yawn, ready yourself for the enterprise

of writing and creating, a poem or an essay

that will like the gentle breeze dissipitate

the vague and nebulous into a moonlike clarity

Are you awake my lovely....