The Washington herald., 1922-03-05
The Poets Corner
Iastrsctie.s for a Ballet,

Raise the right foot-bound in
sheer
Reasons of white and gold
One inch from the black stage
floor.
Then perform these torpid words:
Money is dangerous to men:
il shames the clearness of their
thoughts"
After thus accounting
For the loQuacious smallness
OF those rare gifts that come from
doubling men,
Tear the left foot vigorously
From the black grip Of the floor
And attend its nakedness
With this coronation OF words:
Money IL emptiness
Curiousiy violated by color.
Crown IL with originality
That burns with careless discern
ment,
And amaze the Iimpid
Familiarity of Time"
After thus accounting
For an improbable situation,
Abandon the farce and shrewdly
riptoe across the stage,
Peertng down at your feet
And mistaking their lean mysterie,
For possibilities In syncopation.
Having thus emulated
The tension OF q psycho-analyst
Who confuses routines with causes
Suddenly kneel upon the floor.
Limp with the collapse Of sightIesl
longing,
And raise one hand to the sky
While clenching the other hand a
your audience.
Thus expressing the thoughtful
perturbations
OF Occidental religions.
Then dance across the stage,
Giving complex decisions to your
legs
And interrupting the dance with q
pause
In which you question its cumber
some cause.
Having thus defended
The broken rhythm of Western
philosopher
Sprinkled with a carnival of de
tails
Change the dance to a borrowed
- waltz,
Vicking suave tricks from a harI
That lacks an ascending scale o.
notes.
And in:issins insist; that til. resul. it
"uSlC.
The end Of the ballet should por,
tray
A gradual sinking to the floor,
With plentiful whispers resentini
The fnal intrusion OF Buddha.
-Hdrtcen BoderheirH. in The Dial
The Freight Train.
Slowly. laboriously. with fog snS
fame.
The engines lift the night freigh
through the hills.
Mysterious segments issue from tn,
frame
OF darkness. and staccato thunde
fills.
With muffied, choked vibration. all tn,
heights.
Like an inverted FIR tree. the smOk,
whirls
Gradually upward. shot with reddenini
lights
The train slows, stops: and a blacl
silence swiris
About the furnaces that glare.
Again
The engines heare their shoulders tc
the toll
Momentously once more begins tn,
train
That hard ascent; cnce more th,
strange turmoil
OF burdened Titans plodding through
the night.
Winds toward some summit far be
yond their sight.
Kenneth Slade AHino. in Leslie
Weekly.
"SdmpIiHo the evidence in certdi,
cases since prohibition, has become a,
established habit toith tHries Of late
habit ichtch tcos prophesied BY Ar.
thur GuitermuM IN his recent book
'Bdlldds Of Old Nev York" CHdr
pers). One Of the poems, "a Trial ~
Nec Amsterdom,y has 10 do tcitl
BHroher Jan Hdeekius, tcho sues on,
Jdcobus VuR CoucenhoHreH for pay
ment IN return for a ke0 Of beer. Tkt
crafty Jdcobus contends IN court thai
the beer pds sicorthless breu, :
tchereupon the court adjourned 10 iR
spect 20:
Out to the open the Jury ran
With doubtful Jacobus and hopefu
Jan.
Nothing was heard for an hour OF
twain
But mellow sursies. the soft refrain
OF deep-drawn breathing and smack
Of zest
That tell Of the spirit OF man at rest
While the jury. seated along a fence
Absorbed and digested the evidence.
Secmly the session, though all to short
Zen for the lltigants- Soon the court
Gravely convened at its former stand
Wiring Its mouth on the back OF is
hand,
And spake with conviction, as jurors
should:
Verdict for plaintiff. Said beer was