The Age of Blue Memory, Orientations , 1940

Olive trees and vineyards far as the sea
Red fishing boats beyond, far as memory
August's golden sheaves in midday slumber
With seaweed and shells. And that green boat,
Just launched, still blessing the water's peaceful breast with "God will provide"

The years went by, leaves or pebbles,
I recall the young men, the sailors who left,
Their sails dyed the colour of their hearts
Their songs telling of the four horizons
And the north winds tattooed on their chests

What was I looking for when you arrived, painted by the rising sun
The sea's age in your eyes
The sun's health in your body--what was I looking for
Deep in the sea-caves, the spacious dreams
Where the wind scattered its feelings like foam
Unknown and blue, carving his sea-emblem on my chest

Sand on my fingers, I closed my fingers
Sand on my eyes, I clasped my fingers
It was the sorrow--
I remember it was April when I first felt your human weight
Your human body, clay and sin,
Like our first day on earth
Feast-day of the amaryllis--I remember your pain
It was a deep bite on the lips a deep nail-mark on the skin where time's track is traced eternally

I left you then
And a deafening wind shook the white houses
Shook white feelings freshly washed into the sky
Radiant with a smile

Now I will have beside me a pitcher of deathless water,
I will have a diagram of the wind's shattering freedom
And whose hands of yours where Love will be tormented
And that shell of yours where the Aegean will echo.