Marjorie Allen Seiffert. Cythaera and the Song. Harriet Monroe, ed. Poetry: A Magazine of Verse. 1912-22

Harriet Monroe, ed. (1860–1936). Poetry: A Magazine of Verse. 1912–22.

Cythaera and the Song

By Marjorie Allen Seiffert


The narrow door
Is open to the starlight. Let us go,
Beloved, toward the night.

We venture into darkness—when we speak
It is like wind blowing through withered grass,	5
While from our hearts no word
Disturbs the silence where we pass:

And though our fingers sparkle when they touch,
Like fireflies, our fingers still are young;
Our spirits have forgotten much—	10
Night is a song in a forgotten tongue.

We try to fling
Our lives into the night—our bodies sway,
We gesture bravely with our hands;
Our spirits cling	15
To the safe nothingness of yesterday.

And so at last, unshattered as before,
Laughing, breathless, desperate, we return
To the narrow door.