The Project Gutenberg EBook of Sun-Up and Other Poems, by Lola Ridge

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Title: Sun-Up and Other Poems

Author: Lola Ridge

Posting Date: July 25, 2009 [EBook #4331]
Release Date: August, 2003
First Posted: January 8, 2002

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SUN-UP AND OTHER POEMS ***

Produced by Catherine Daly

Sun-Up and Other Poems

By

Lola Ridge

DEDICATION
(To my Mother)

Let me cradle myself back
Into the darkness
Of the half shapes...
Of the cauled beginnings...
Let me stir the attar of unused air,
Elusive... ironically fragrant
As a dead queen's kerchief...
Let me blow the dust from off you...
Resurrect your breath
Lying limp as a fan
In a dead queen's hand.

Thanks is due to THE NEW REPUBLIC, POETRY, A MAGAZINE OF VERSE,
PLAY-BOY, and OTHERS for permission to reprint some of these poems.

CONTENTS

I

SUN UP

SUN-UP

II

MONOLOGUES

JAGUAR
WILD DUCK
THE DREAM
ALTITUDE
COMRADES
NOCTURNE
CACTUS SEED

III

WINDOWS

TIME-STONE
TRAIN WINDOW
SCANDAL
ELECTRICITY
SKYSCRAPERS
WALL STREET AT NIGHT
EAST RIVER

IV

SECRETS

INTERIM
AFTER STORM
SECRETS
POTPOURRI
THAW

V

PORTRAITS

MOTHER
E.S.
H.
O.F.T.
E.A.R.

VI

SONS OF BELIAL

SONS OF BELIAL

VII

REVEILLE

IN HARNESS
REVEILLE
TO ALEXANDER BERKMAN
EMMA GOLDMAN
AN OLD WORKMAN
TO LARKIN
WIND RISING IN THE ALLEYS

SUN-UP

(Shadows over a cradle...
fire-light craning....
A hand
throws something in the fire
and a smaller hand
runs into the flame and out again,
singed and empty....
Shadows
settling over a cradle...
two hands
and a fire.)

I

CELIA

Cherry, cherry,
glowing on the hearth,
bright red cherry....
When you try to pick up cherry
Celia's shriek
sticks in you like a pin.

: :

When God throws hailstones
you cuddle in Celia's shawl
and press your feet on her belly
high up like a stool.
When Celia makes umbrella of