PARMER SNIDER-Chess Player, Poet, Night Owl

Faltering boarding-school student
Reading with four-wick wax candle
Old latin textbook on his lap
An underfed ragamuffin
Waiting for the Friday night dance

………………………………………………………………………

The Voyage

How the brook dwindles in the heat
And delight fades into darkness
So the artist creeps down the stairs
As the noon shivers
From behind a cloudy foam
Soft breezes that once were
The finest cleanest green
Long rock wall by the garden
Deep shade of an apple tree
Turtles in the grass
Winding path to the spring
A full measure of contentment
Oak leaves in the sky
From a day gone by
So wonderful the decline
How sweet the lowering
Crumbling a sundering
Ebbing delightfully
Sliding toward stillness
Unraveling simply
Secretly tumbling
Fading along down
Reaching under
Slipping ever

——————————————–

soft breezes that once were
the finest cleanest green
long rock wall by the garden
deep shade of an apple tree
turtles in the grass
winding path to the spring
a full measure of contentment
oak leaves in the sky
from a day gone by
—————————————
so wonderful the decline
how sweet the lowering
crumbling asundering
ebbing delightfull
sliding oward stilness
unrevelling simply
secretly tumbling
fading along down
reaching under
slipping ever