The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #108898 Message #2270706
Posted By: Q (Frank Staplin)
23-Feb-08 - 09:12 PM
Thread Name: ADD: Poems and Songs of Charles Badger Clark
Subject: Lyr Add: THE COYOTE (Badger Clark)
THE COYOTE
(Charles Badger Clark)
Trailing the last gleam after,
In the valleys emptied of light,
Ripples a whimsical laughter
Under the wings of the night.
Mocking the faded west airily,
Meeting the little bats merrily,
Over the mesas it shrills
To the red moon on the hills.
Mournfully rising and waning,
Far through the moon-silvered land
Wails a weird voice of complaining
Over the thorns and the sand.
Out of blue silences eerily,
On to the black mountains wearily,
Till the dim desert is crossed,
Wanders the cry, and is lost.
Here by the fire's ruddy streamers,
Tired with our hopes and our fears,
We inarticulate dreamers
Hark to the song of our years.
Up to the brooding divinity
Far in that sparkling infinity
Cry our despair and delight,
Voice of the Western night!
Badger Clark, in Grass Grown Trails," included in "Sun and Saddle Leather," 1952 edition, pp. 107-108, Chapman & Grimes, Boston.
I have not seen music for this poem.
Note from Joe Offer: 1922 edition of Badger Clark's Sun and Saddle Leather available at Google Books. This post is an exact transcription.
-Joe Offer-
This is an edited PermaThread® for the poems and songs of Charles Badger Clark, Jr. This thread will be edited by Joe Offer. Feel free to post to this thread, but remember that all messages posted here are subject to editing or deletion.
If you'd like to transcribe and post other poems from this book, please do - but try to do your best at proofreading. You'll find that the Google OCR leaves much to be desired, so we can make a real contribution by posting exact transcriptions.
-Joe Offer-