A Garret of Old Playthings

I. Upstairs

I too have a garret of old playthings.
I have tin soldiers with broken arms upstairs.
I have wagons with the wheels gone upstairs.
I have guns and a drum, and a jumping jack and a magic lantern.
And dust is on them, and I never look at them upstairs.
I too have a garret of old playthings.

 
II. God is No Gentleman

God gets up in the morning
   and says, "Another day?"
God goes to work every day
   at regular hours.
God is no gentleman, for God puts
   on overalls and gets dirty
   running the universe we know
   about and several other universes
   nobody knows about but Him.

 
III. Changing Light Winds

Changing light winds
blew over the sea,
came blue, came gold,
came silver with spray,
came white in dreamsnow
with long foam feathers,
long sleepy snowfalls,
then gray over the flats
an overcast of monotone--
night and stars a while
then night and no stars.

 
IV. Spring Grass

Spring grass, there is a dance to be danced for you.
Come up, spring grass, if only for young feet.
Come up, spring grass, young feet ask you.

Smell of the young spring grass,
You're a mascot riding on the wind horses.
You came to my nose and spiffed me.

This is your lucky year.
Young spring grass just after the winter,
Shoots of the big green whisper of the year,
Come up, if only for young feet.
Come up, young feet ask you.

 
V. I Sang

I sang to you and the moon
But only the moon remembers.
   I sang
O reckless free-hearted
                  free-throated rhythms,
Even the moon remembers them
   and is kind to me.