Advice: A Book of Poems

<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</SPAN></span> <h2 class="nobreak">TO ORRICK JOHNS</h2> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">The tread-mill roar that ever tramps between</div> <div class="verse">The smirched geometries of this stern place,</div> <div class="verse">Sweeps vainly on your drowsily reckless face</div> <div class="verse">Lost in a swirl of raped loves barely seen.</div> <div class="verse">Sometimes your keenly pagan lips are raised</div> <div class="verse">By thoughts too tense to shape themselves in speech:</div> <div class="verse">Still, wounded thoughts that silently beseech</div> <div class="verse">Your life to make them impotent and dazed.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">O tangled and half-strangled child, you shrink</div> <div class="verse">For ever from yourself, and wear a pose</div> <div class="verse">Of nimble and impenetrable pride.</div> <div class="verse">Yet sometimes, wavering on the sudden brink</div> <div class="verse">Of jaded bitterness, you drop your clothes</div> <div class="verse">And weave a prayer into your naked stride.</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />