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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


FOOTFALLS by HAZEL HALL

First Line: LIFE, BE MY PILLOW
Last Line: SEEN . . .
Subject(s): LIFE;

I

Life, be my pillow.
Forget, forget, forget
If I once asked for wandering
With never a thought of cold or wet.
Forget, forget, forget, forget
If I once asked for roads that fled
Before resisting tread.
Be nothing for my feet, life;
Be something under my head . . .

II

Motion, motion;
Life is meaningless
Save in its motion.
I will move, blind; I will feel nothingness,
So that, itinerant, I may unwind
Meanings coiled in my feet. And though there be
Only the meaning of futility,
Yet, moving, I shall find
All that is ever found:
Motion, and echoed motion,
Sound . . .

III

The tip of a fir,
And it is colored green,
Over a shiny roof is seen.
And who needs more, even if there were
Something more than the tip of a fir?
And who would think, even if they could,
Of roots and trunks that have stood, have stood
Through -- but who would care how many springs --
Even if there were such things?
The feathery green
Tip of a fir
Is seen,
Seen . . .



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