Song of the Round Man
(For Sarah when she???s older)



The round and sad-eyed man puffed cigars as if
he were alive. Gillyflowers
to the left of the apple, purple bells to the right

and a grass-covered hill behind.
I am sad today said the sad-eyed man
for I have locked my head in a Japanese box

and lost the key.
I am sad today he told me
for there are gillyflowers by the apple

and purple bells I cannot see.
Will you look at them for me
he asked, and tell me what you find?

I cannot I replied
for my eyes have grown sugary and dim
from reading too long by candlelight.

Tell me what you???ve read then
said the round and sad-eyed man.
I cannot I replied

for my memory has grown tired and dim
from looking at things that can???t be seen
by any kind of light

and I???ve locked my head in a Japanese box
and thrown away the key.
Then I am you and you are me

said the sad-eyed man as if alive.
I???ll write you in where I should be
between the gillyflowers and the purple bells

and the apple and the hill
and we???ll puff cigars from noon till night
as if we were alive.

 This Time
(Another for Sarah)



Once I fell in the ocean when
I didn???t know I fell in the ocean

Then Momma got me out
This isn???t true

only something I remember
Once in the park I broke in half

and lost one half
which half I don???t remember

Once I was in a room
It grew larger and larger

why I don???t remember
One time I turned blue all over

then got clear as glass
This really happened

but not to me
Once I couldn???t see

for a while
so I listened lying down

Another time I looked out the window
and saw myself at the window

across the street
This time it was me




As a Real House
(Sarah???s Third Song)



???I said darkling and you said sparkling???
The play-house appears before us

as a real house in the dark
filled with people cut out

of magazines and postcards
and called real people at the start

Why is the curtain partly drawn
and why does the stair turn

to the left as you climb
and the right going down

Here all day it???s midwinter night
and the musicians will continue to play

in the music room
and sleep will never come

This is lesson three
where the fiddler is made real

by the sound she hears
pouring from her fingers




Of this cloth doll which
(Sarah???s Fourth)



Of this cloth doll which
says Oh yes
and then its face changes
to Once upon a time
to Wooden but alive
to Like the real
to Late into the night
to There lived an old
to Running across ice
(but shadows followed)
to Finally it sneezed
to The boat tipped over
to Flesh and blood
to Out of the whale???s mouth




Yes in a Circle
(Sarah???s Fifth)



Yes in a circle the imagined train
word after recent word
you make them up to come to mean
light to shadow day
pond as music???s mirror
trees cut from yarrow stalks
would be real in order to seem
a reasonably green place
a reasonable number of roads
some straight, some curved and narrow
beside rails whose perfect parallels
are nowhere else to be seen
but in a sealed and measured space
called here and now for now



Scattered Song
(Sarah???s Sixth)



Suddenly you are almost too old
for frog tales
though I???m still not

Once a frog spoke into a shell
What came back as its voice was not

Once there was no frog
It stayed out of the story
Where did it stay

Once you were a frog in a play
all green on a Friday

This isn???t memory

Some frogs sound like frogs exactly
others like crickets or owls or cats

I know that???s not a story

Once a frog the size of a penny
sat in my hand silently watching

I don???t know if that???s a story

Small Spelling Song
(Sarah???s Seventh)



Appear appear
in autumn

Drive and drive your car
Have no fear

Drive very far
Don???t stop don???t stop

at all
It???s fall

Red Yellow Blue
(Sarah???s Eighth)



Now that you know all the words
and I have almost forgotten them

Or now that you have experienced rain
for days on end

and learned to paint with red, yellow and blue
those days which seem to have no end

and I see you often walking alone
down the street or else among friends

mindful of company, equally wondering
wherefrom a world???s wrongs stem

And now that you may swim out of sight
if you choose, as choose you must

all along,
a song

De Nederlandse vertaling, 'Liedjes voor Sarah', van Tom van de Voorde vind je in DW B 2012 3 De verwondering.