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 

• The Buried Train by Robert Bly by Poetry In English
• The Defunct Drugstore by Robert Lloyd Jaffe by Poetry In English
• The Apple Trees at Olema by Robert Hass by Poetry In English
• Snowbanks North of the House by Robert Bly by Poetry In English
• Sleep Spaces by Robert Desnos by Poetry In English
• Often I Am Permitted to Return to a Meadow by Robert Duncan by Poetry In English
• No, Love Is Not Dead by Robert Desnos by Poetry In English
• Need by Robert Lloyd Jaffe by Poetry In English
• My Mother Would Be a Falconress by Robert Duncan by Poetry In English
• Misery And Splendor by Robert Hass by Poetry In English
• Lying Down by Robert Desnos by Poetry In English
• Long Long Ago by Robert Desnos by Poetry In English
• Iowa City: Early April by Robert Hass by Poetry In English
• Interrupted Meditation by Robert Hass by Poetry In English
• If You Only Knew by Robert Desnos by Poetry In English
• Identity of Images by Robert Desnos by Poetry In English
• I Have Dreamed of You so Much by Robert Desnos by Poetry In English
• Heroic Simile by Robert Hass by Poetry In English
• Fairy Tale by Robert Desnos by Poetry In English
• Dove in the Arch by Robert Desnos 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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