The Paper Nautilus
For authorities whose hopesare shaped by mercenaries? Writers entrapped by teatime fame and bycommuters' comforts? Not for these the paper nautilus constructs her thin glass shell. Giving her perishablesouvenir of hope, a dull white outside and smooth- edged inner surfaceglossy as the sea, the watchful maker of it guards it day and night; she scarcely eats until the eggs are hatched.
Buried eight-fold in her eight arms, for she is in a sense a devil-fish, her glass ram'shorn-cradled freight is hid but is not crushed; as Hercules, bitten by a crab loyal to the hydra,was hindered to succeed, the intensively watched eggs coming fromthe shell free it when they are freed,— leaving its wasp-nest flaws of white on white, and close- laid Ionic chiton-foldslike the lines in the mane of a Parthenon horse, round which the arms hadwound themselves as if they knew love is the only fortress strong enough to trust to.
Marianne Moore
Other author posts
Rosemary
Beauty and Beauty's son and rosemary - Venus and Love, her son, to speak plainly -born of the sea supposedly, at Christmas each, in company, braids a garland of festivity Not always rosemary - since the flight to Egypt, blooming indifferently...
Silence
My father used to say,Superior people never make long visits,have to be shown Longfellow's gravenor the glass flowers at Harvard Self reliant like the cat —that takes its prey to privacy,the mouse's limp tail hanging like a shoelace fro...
The Pangolin
Another armored animal–scale lapping scale with spruce-cone regularity until theyform the uninterrupted central tail row This near artichoke with head and legs and grit-equipped gizzard,the night miniature artist engineer is, yes, Leonar...
To a Steam Roller
The illustrationis nothing to you without the application You lack half wit You crush all the particles downinto close conformity, and then walk back and forth on them Sparkling chips of rockare crushed down to the level of the pare...
