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Auguries of Innocence
Poems The Lovecrafter
I saw you who was myself
slightly stooped whistling mouth
with leather sack and breeches brown
striding the naked countryside
with summer bones long and dry
into the breadth of our glad day
mid afternoon the longer night
as you tread bareheaded bright
I saw you a wraith bemoan
stir the fires of the ancient ones
scarred with sticks pome and haw
as the nectar for their script
I saw you walk the length of fields
far as the finger of Providence
far as the mounds we call hills
ranges cut from the heart of slate
I saw you dip into your sack
scattering seeds where they may
as the woodsman hews his way
through oak ash and variant pines
for writing desks that shall reflect
a sheaf of lines that speak of trees
all sober hopes required within
all drunkenness as sacred swims
I saw the book upon the shelf
I saw you who was myself
I saw the empty sack at last
I saw the branch your shadow cast
Auguries of Innocence
Poems. Copyright © by Patti Smith. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.