And the sea,
the sea tranquil this winter’s day;
and Ezra, old man gone silent at last, —
ear, ear for the sea-surge
— gone silent, hearing no voices,
only the sea, the measureless sea
fills his ears
bidding him be silent,
bidding him hear no voices

who took genius for wisdom
who took passion for faith
who for atonement took sadness and silence,
took bitterness, despairing of Paradise.

“How are you today, Maestro?”
“Senile!”

And the great sea
surges, surges, the world’s measure.
He may hear it who has the ear for it,
he may bring it forth who has a tongue for it.

Image: drawing of Ezra Pound by Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, ca 1915. This image is out of copyright in the United States, at least, for sheer age.

I’m experimenting with HTML, which — extremely annoyingly for poets — does not have a simple, good, predictable way of indenting lines. Paragraphs, yes; lines, no. If the display seems to have gone south on you, please let me know. I’m looking at it in Firefox and it seems okay to me…