Clark Ashton Smith Poems

1. The years have set thee apart, O Desert;
Silence and solitude are upon thee
For the twiform sigil of the last oblivion.
...

Thou comfortest me with the manna of thy love,
And the kisses of thy mouth are wine and sustenance;
They are grateful as fruit
In lonely orchards by the wayside of a ruinous land,
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My beloved is a well of clear waters,
To which I have come at noontide,
From the land of the Abomination of Desolation,
From the lion-dreaded waste,
...

City forbanned by seer and god and devil!
In glory less than Tyre or fabled Ys,
But more than they in mere, surpassing evil!
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Too long, alas, too long
My patient heart endures
This deep and desperate wrong—
To walk on fallen ways afar from yours.
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About your wrists I bound
Fetters of water-grass
Where the streamlet wound.
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When we harbored in the stone,
With its stillness being one,
All its essence was our own:
Incarnate now, we abdicate
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All beneath a wintering sky,
Follow the wastrel butterfly;
With vermilion leaf or bronze—
Tatters of gorgeous gonfalons—
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This doubtful love has slumbered long—
At most, a shadow-mobled flame,
The murmur of a muted song;
And scarce will tell its rightful name
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What was Love's worth,
Who lived with the roses ?—
Love that is earth,
And with earth reposes !
...