POEMS
VALUES IN USE*
I attended school and I liked the place–
grass and little locust-leaf shadows like lace.
Writing was discussed. They said, "We create
values in the process of living, daren't await
their historic progress. " Be abstract
and you'll wish you'd been specific; it's a fact.
What was I studying? Values in use
"judged on their own ground." Am I still abstruse?
Walking along, a student said offhand,
" 'Relevant' and 'plausible' were words I understand."
A pleasing statement, anonymous friend.
Certainly the means must not defeat the end.
Marianne Moore
*
The two first quoted phrases are taken from a rousing address
that Philip Rahv gave on July 27, 1956 in Alston Burr Hall,
Cambridge.-M. M.
OUT OF CHAOS
What flood traverses me which on my skin
Is struck by the white shudder of traveling wind?
Waves mold me in the turmoil of their spray,
Breezes sweep my beardless face of every
Fold. Glacial shreds of twisting mists
Swaddle my loins. What weight still holds me half
