ALVMNVS BOOK FVND I i Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2008 with funding from Microsoft Corporation http://www.archive.org/details/fairybreadOObenrich FAIRY BREAD FAIRY BREAD BY J Laura Be^et NEW YORK THOMAS SELTZER 1921 kjOPtmqHT, 1921, £-: TH0^1A,8 SBI.TZER, INC. All rights reserved Printed in United States of America TO MY GRANDMOTHER MARY LEE ROSE "THERE ARE MIRACLES: — AND I HAVE SEEN ONE." i9S36 A few of these poems have already appeared in Collier's, The Chimaera, Others, The Masses, The Literary Review, The Lyric, Contemporary Verse, The Century, The Smart Set. The author acknowl- edges with thanks permission to reprint them here. CONTENTS The Quest 11 "She Wandered After Strange Gods „ . ." 13 Cushy Cow 16 " Little Fishes in Glass Dishes " . . . .18 The Penny 20 The Witch's House 22 Pity the Moon 24 The Thrush 25 Peter 26 Adventure 28 Circles 30 Humor 32 Gardens of Babylon 34 The Dragon's Grandmother 36 " Feathers — Flowers " 37 Enemies 40 FAIRY BREAD THE QUEST I am seeking for my pool. It lies among the heather, Where misty mountains gather Still and cool. Winds fan its shores and guard its ground Yet no breeze brings its murmuring sound. ^ am seeking for my ring. It has fallen in the bushes Where the golden-hearted thrushes Used to sing. Men dig and plant. The earth is tossed — Yet my lost circlet none have crossed. [ n ] I am seeking for my heart. It left me in the twilight When the voices of the night Called apart. Travellers go far by land and sea Yet no one brings my heart to me. r 12 j 'SHE WANDERED AFTER STRANGE GODS . . ." O have you seen my fairy steed? His eye are wild, his mane is white, He feeds upon an elfin weed In cool of autumn night. O have you heard my fairy steed, Whose cry is like a wandering loon? He mourns some cloudy star-strewn mead On mountains of the moon. O have you tamed my fairy horse, To mount upon his back and ride? He tears the great trees in his course, Nor ever turns aside. [ 13 ] 'Tis he who tames a fairy thing Must suffer want and bitter fate ! Deftly the bridles did I fling That brought him to my gate. I soothed and fed and tendered him Sweet herbs and honey in a cup, And led him in the twilight dim To where a spring welled up. But there his wings they waved so bright Before my eyes, I drooped and slept. When I awoke, it seemed dark night. I raised my voice and wept. Alas, my lightsome fairy steed ! I saw my pastures trampled bare Where I had sown the springtime seed And planted flowers rare ! [ 14 ] I saw my barns a mass of flame ! His fiery wings had glanced in flight. And me — a prey to fear and shame — He left, to seek the light ! [ 15 ] CUSHY COW Cushy cow has curly horns, Delicate, tipped with brown. Swifter her hoofs fly backward Than any bull's in town. We milk her into great white pails And crocks of cottage blue, And her leavings run all over the yard — Yet our milking is never through ! I found her at smoky twilight By the well of the pale primrose, Where grey elves hung on her haunches And nuzzled her grazing nose. [ 16 ] But as they cried and cheeped to her And whined both plaintive and shrill, I caught her by the lock that's loose And dragged her up Dead Man's Hill ! Awhile she pined for the magic herb, Awhile for the spring that's young ; But since my sweetheart has sung to her She holds a contented tongue. Yet it's by but a thread and a broken gate We hold our fairy of kine. She suckles elf babies still, by night, Who wither on cowslip wine! [ 17] LITTLE FISHES IN GLASS DISHES Verdant and glassy- Its sides rise sheerly. Light frothy bubbles Float to its surface, And deep within it Transparent fishes, Tiny coiled sea-horses Swim to and fro. Steadily swimming, Warily rising, Diving and dipping, Catching at sea-weed, [ 18 ] Snapping at stray flies And flecks of sunlight, Ever in motion, — Prey of a vortex. Their eyes cryptic, Stealthy, translucent, Stare into star-space Visioning nothing. A sword-fish grinning Pursues his neighbor, A wee mock-turtle Heavily weeps. [ 19 ] THE PENNY A penny, a penny small, a penny round ! Why do you bend your eyes upon the ground ? Magical things that leap and frisk Are conjured up by that copper disk. Toss it into the green lagoon ; It rises in the round, yellow moon. Throw it into the cleft yew tree ; The woodcutter finds a treasury. Spin it on an oak table top; And skipping lines of rabbits hop. [ 20 ] Boll it under the coach of the bride ; Luck goes over the country side. Ring it that children's feet may sing Round barrel organs capering. Cheaper than silver, dearer than gold. Thistledown light, yet hard to hold. A penny, a penny small, a penny gay ! Why do you turn your dancing eyes away ? [ 21 ] THE WITCH'S HOUSE Its wicked little windows leer Beneath a moldy thatch, And village children come and peer Before they lift the latch. A one-eyed crow hops to the door, Fat spiders crowd the pane, And dark herbs scattered on the floor Waft fragrance down the lane. It sits so low, the little hutch, So secret, shy, and squat, As if in its mysterious clutch It nursed one knew not what, [ 22 ] That beggars passing by the ditch Are haunted with desire To force the door, and see the witch Vanish in flames of fire ! [ 23 ] PITY THE MOON A withered crone is the moon to-night Bent, unloved and proud, Shuffling in the windy light Through dipping vales of cloud. Her dreams, her airy, delicate dreams Are spilled into the sky ; And, failing the touch of their brittle gleams, Moon will dwindle and die ; Greedy stars clutched them as they fell From the rim of the white, torn track, But her yawning pocket holds no spell To conjure her silver back. [ 24 ] THE THRUSH God bade the birds break not the silent spell That lay upon the wood. Longing for liquid notes that never fell Ached the deep solitude. The little birds obeyed. Xo voice awoke. Dwelling sedate, apart, Only the thrush, the thrush that never spoke, Sang from her bursting heart. [25 ] PETER Peter of the brothers three Loved a life of poesy ; While they stolid bargains drove He saw movies in the stove. Peter was a man of peace Happily he tended geese ; Though his brothers, as they rose, Ran a motor 'neath his nose. Peter knew his limitations, — Never needed intimations Which tunes he was not to sing What new cabbage pleased the king. [ 26 ] Peter saw expedience Was the way of common sense ; Sitting quiet on the down Grabbed the princess and the crown. [27] ADVENTURE Black wave the trees in the forest And a rough wind hurries by, But the swineherd's toddling daughter Knows where fallen pinecones lie. And girt with a snowy apron She scampers, alert and gay To the hidden pool in the hollow Where the wan witch people play. They smile, the wee wrinkled women They creep to her pinafore ; And lay in her lap strange treasures Trolls brought from the ocean's floor. [ 28 ] And they marvel at her blonde tresses And braid them with scented fern ; And they lave her dusty, brown ankles With snow water from the burn. But nobody listens, or heeds them The swineherd hews a new trail, The swineherd's wife in the cottage Pours the sour milk from the pail. And little Gerta lags homeward Dream shod through the shadows deep; Her eyelids heavy with wonder — They whisper, " She's been asleep." [29 ] CIRCLES 'Yes, this is it, the snowy ring — Drawn with chalk and a piece of string! Tell me why it was not made square With four flat corners glittering there? 'A child's world knows no certain bound. Its magic music goes round and round. A child's play has no sudden stop: Look at the whirring flight of a top ! 'A child's mind sketches a shining floor On which light fancy opens the door. No end to a child's soul ! Hungrily It stretches to white infinity. [ 30 ] "Squares are rigid, but circles yield Like the meadow grass of a springing field ! So here's the little white circle, meet For a merry chorus of children's feet !" [ 31 ] HUMOR A fairy dances In upland pastures, Picking tart crabapples, Swinging low; Twisted and green, Elfin-mouthed, lean, His feet may be chained They are never slow. He slyly peeps under Bushes of wonder, Hunts for thistles In hedgerow trees [ 32 ] And straight thereafter Tickles to laughter Solemn asses On bended knees. Where his sharp wits go Occasions grow, The blind see meadows Of waving corn ; Men mazed with talking Find lost hopes walking When he conjures roses Out of a thorn. [ 33 I GARDENS OF BABYLON Huddled chimneys, grey, forlorn, In the deadened light of a city morn. Rooftops ranging, red and high, Tenement windows glaring, dry. And — flower pots ! Gaily caparisoned flower pots, Nodding against the sky ! Fire escapes alive with the green Of scarlet runner and Indian bean, Caught in a handful of black dirt, Carried home in a baby's skirt. . . Flower pots ! Verdantly growing flower pots, Lifting their blooms on high ! t 34 ] Jack and the Beanstalk's magic might Vines spring up in a single night ! Old faces soften, children stare At the slender gardens in the air. Flower pots ! Meagre little clay flower pots Bring the glow of the country there ! [ 35 ] THE DRAGON'S GRANDMOTHER Titanic courage nerved this little frame To grapple fate. Thin, gnome-like, sadly lame, She steers her cockleshell along its way With never promise of a better day. For she is very old, bereft of kin, Scrubber of basements in the hurrying din Of the dragon city. Once she fell and lay Muttering, stricken. Those hours she nearly died. The priest brought draggled roses. (In her pride These mark an epoch!) Wizened, beady-eyed, She trembles forth upon her daily chore. . . . That withered, red geranium means much more. . • % You see? — and those cheap chromos by the door! [ 36 ] " FEATHERS — FLOWERS " "Feathers ! Don't fall among ; em, ma'am ! Sometimes they fills this garret deep. You can't see any ? Wonder why ! They bresh my face when I'm asleep. "Yes, three of us was living here, My mother, sister May, and me. It'll be two years in the spring Since I was left of all the three. "You see, our trade was day piece-work. We sorted feathers for the store, Made flowers — roses, violets — And piled 'em up here on the floor. [ 37 ] "Red, blue and yellow and light green — They was reel pretty when all done; We'd lay trays on the window sill To watch 'em shining in the sun. "One day a lady says to me, 'I see you keep a flock of birds !' *Why, ma'am?' 'Because there's feathers here; Feathers and feathers !' Them's her words. "When momma and my sister went Seemed s'if I couldn't bear that sight ! I dropped the trade and took to sewing Long as my eyes could stand the light. "But then, wherever I would turn, Feathers was flying round my head ; And flowers ! I could see them blossom Through the wall paper by my bed. [ 38 ] "Sometimes they'd float along the ceiling, One day I found them in the milk ; And when I'd work at making dresses — Flowers would burst out of the silk. 'What's that, ma'am ? I should leave this lodging And move to folks that doesn't know ? What if the feathers began to flutter, What if the flowers began to grow?" [ 39 ] ENEMIES I am afraid of the dark, That it will not let me alone ; The intimacies of its silence Would kindle stone. But I'm more afraid of the light, For its spaces snatch my breath And make me question the time I shall travel with Death. [ 40 ] YB 74552 4698 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY *£a.