Hollo, Anselm Sojourner Microcosms: New and Selected Poems 1959-1977 Blue Wind Press, Berkeley, 1977, Wraps, , , ISBN 0912652381 , Very Good
286 pp. + index. Light bumps to corners. The line extending from top to bottom of cover, visible in photo, seems to be in the artwork and is not a crease in the cover. With a foreward by Robert Creeley and an afterword by Edward Dorn. Frontispiece full-page photo portrait of Hollo in b&w by Layle Silbert. Contents: Foreword by Robert Creeley; Author's Note; Maya: 1966-67; 1967-69; Sensation 27: 1969-72; Some Worlds: 1972-73; Black Book: 1971-74; The Anima Abstract 1975; Motes & Paramecia: Motes 1975-76, Paramecia 1967-1976; Lingering Tangos: 1976-77; Afterword by Edward Dorn; Other books by Anselm Hollo; index to titles and first lines. "his name is / polysyllabic chaos, chinese / in the lobby of administration / where i wait for you--from "waiting for you at Tousled State College.";"/imgs/000939.jpg;/imgs/000939b.jpg;
Rock Me to Sleep
BACKWARD, turn backward, O Time, in your flight,
Make me a child again just for to-night!
Mother, come back from the echoless shore,
Take me again to your heart as of yore;
Kiss from my forehead the furrows of care,
Smooth the few silver threads out of my hair;
Over my slumbers your loving watch keep;
Rock me to sleep, mother,rock me to sleep!
Backward, flow backward, O tide of the years!
I am so weary of toil and of tears,
Toil without recompense, tears all in vain,
Take them, and give me my childhood again!
I have grown weary of dust and decay,
Weary of flinging my soul-wealth away;
Weary of sowing for others to reap;
Rock me to sleep, mother,rock me to sleep!
Tired of the hollow, the base, the untrue,
Mother, O mother, my heart calls for you!
Many a summer the grass has grown green,
Blossomed and faded, our faces between:
Yet, with strong yearning and passionate pain,
Long I to-night for your presence again.
Come from the silence so long and so deep;
Rock me to sleep, mother,rock me to sleep!
Over my heart, in the days that are flown,
No love like mother-love ever has shone;
No other worship abides and endures,
Faithful, unselfish, and patient like yours:
None like a mother can charm away pain
From the sick soul and the world-weary brain.
Slumber's soft calms o'er my heavy lids creep;?
Rock me to sleep, mother,rock me to sleep!
Come, let your brown hair, just lighted with gold,
Fall on your shoulders again as of old;
Let it drop over my forehead to-night,
Shading my faint eyes away from the light;
For with its sunny-edged shadows once more
Haply will throng the sweet visions of yore;
Lovingly, softly, its bright billows sweep;
Rock me to sleep, mother,rock me to sleep!
Mother, dear mother, the years have been long
Since I last listened your lullaby song:
Sing, then, and unto my soul it shall seem
Womanhood's years have been only a dream.
Clasped to your heart in a loving embrace,
With your light lashes just sweeping my face,
Never hereafter to wake or to weep;
Rock me to sleep, mother,rock me to sleep!