When the white smoke of our breath blew up
and drowned the hollow night.
We crushed them out beneath our feet and leapt from hill to hill,
Till east to east the sweep of space was rocking with our flight.

The little walls of man uprose like shields beneath our feet;
We beat upon their hollow cells a million shafts of rain;
Our wild song of freedom was loud in every street,
While down along the slimy wharves the great ships lift and strain.

The dawn pushed pale thin fingers above the flattened sea,
Groping blind white fingers that clawed the shroud of night;
'Till from the straining eddies the pale forms turned to flee,
And a million tongues of madness rose singing through the fight.

Across the quaking marshes we turned and wandered back;
The trapper in the clearing heard the wan thin hosts of rain.
We moved between the steaming trails where all the woods dripped black,
And high among the empty hills we pitched our tents again.




Spring Madness

I stoop and tear the sandals from my feet
While the green fires glimmer in the gloom;
The hot roar of madness
Swells my veins with gladness;
I smell the rotting wood-stuff