Reading Shibboleth.
Poems like this one make me think I should learn dance and meter. From Shibboleth OUP 1988.
Khalypso.
Cast off old love like substance from a flame;
Cast off that ballast from your memory.
But leave me and you leave behind your name.
When snows have made ideas of the rain,
When canvas bloats and ships grow on the sea,
Cast off old love like substance from a flame.
Your eyes are green with oceans and you strain
To crown and claim your sovereignty,
You leave me and you leave behind your name
And all the mysteries these isles retain.
But if the god of sailors hacks you free,
Cast off old love like substance from a flame
Until you’re in a woman’s bed again
And make her moan as you make me,
‘Leave me and you leave behind your name.’
The brails go taut. The halyard jerks, the pain
Of breeching to the squall and all to be
Cast off, old love, like substance from a flame.
Now leave me. I will live behind your name.
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