By The Fire

A poem by Aldous Huxley (1894 – 1963)

We who are lovers sit by the fire,

Cradled warm ‘twixt thought and will,

Sit and drowse like sleeping dogs

In the equipoise of all desire,

Sit and listen to the still

Small hiss and whisper of green logs

That burn away, that burn away

With the sound of a far-off falling stream

Of threaded water blown to steam,

Grey ghost in the mountain world of grey.

Vapours blue as distance rise

Between the hissing logs that show

A glimpse of rosy heat below;

And candles watch with tireless eyes

While we sit drowsing here. I know,

Dimly, that there exists a world,

That there is time perhaps, and space

Other and wider than this place,

Where at the fireside drowsily curled

We hear the whisper and watch the flame

Burn blinkless and inscrutable.

And then I know those other names

That through my brain from cell to cell

Echo–reverberated shout

Of waiters mournful along corridors:

But nobody carries the orders out,

And the names (dear friends, your name and yours)

Evoke no sign. But here I sit

On the wide hearth, and there are you:

That is enough and only true.

The world and the friends that lived in it

Are shadows: you alone remain

Real in this drowsing room,

Full of the whispers of distant rain

And candles staring into the gloom.

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Poems in English 

• For K. J., Leaving and Coming Back by Marilyn Hacker by Poetry In English
• Exiles by Marilyn Hacker by Poetry In English
• Desesperanto by Marilyn Hacker by Poetry In English
• Dear Alzheimer’s by Maria Knox by Poetry In English
• Colors Passing Through Us by Marge Piercy by Poetry In English
• Children of My Own by Marie Starr by Poetry In English
• Belly Good by Marge Piercy by Poetry In English
• Baseball and Writing by Marianne Moore by Poetry In English
• Barbie Doll by Marge Piercy by Poetry In English
• Attack of the Squash People by Marge Piercy by Poetry In English
• Always Unsuitable by Marge Piercy by Poetry In English
• about emptiness… by Marina Cecilia Kohon by Poetry In English
• A Work Of Artifice by Marge Piercy by Poetry In English
• A Grave by Marianne Moore by Poetry In English
• Woman by Manmohan Acharya by Poetry In English
• Without exile, who am I? by Mahmoud Darwish by Poetry In English
• Winter’s End by Mac McGovern by Poetry In English
• Wind by Mac McGovern by Poetry In English
• What these girl means to me by Maphoto selokela by Poetry In English
• Two Stranger Birds in Our Feathers by Mahmoud Darwish by Poetry In English

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Duckduckgo – the real alternative and a search engine that actually works. Without much censorship or partisan politics.

Yahoo– yes, it’s still around, amazingly, miraculously, incredibly, but now it seems to be powered by Bing.

 

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