Four Poems

Wallace Stevens and Mozart

Oh Wallace Stevens, dear friend,
You are such a pest. You are so sure.
You think everyone is in your family.

It is you and your father and Mozart,
And ladies tasting cold rain in Florence,
Puzzling out inscriptions, studying the gold flake.

It is as if life were a visit to Florence,
A place where there are no maggots in the flesh,
No one screaming, no one afraid.

Your job, your joy, your morning walk,
As if you walked on the wire of the mind,
High above the elephants. You cry out a little but never fall.

As if we could walk always high above the world,
No bears, no witches, no Macbeth,
No maggots, no one screaming, no one afraid.


Rethinking Wallace Stevens
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