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cover: back
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page 1
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TITLE PAGE
MIGRATORY URGE
wood-cut poems
by
HELEN WEST HELLER
Chicago, FRANKLIN J. MEINE, 1928
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page 2
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page 3
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Grateful acknowledge- / ment of previous publi- / cation of the poems / here reprinted is made / to The Measure, The / Little Review, Pagan, / and The Chicago Even- / ing Post Magazine of / the Art World.
copyright 1928 by Helen West Heller
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Stone is a good medium / for busts and decalogues / but the wood-cut, med- / ium alike of the simplest / "horn book" and the / spacious imagination of / Blake illustrating Virgil, / is ideal for the purpose / of one born in the / Spoon River Country, now / famous both as artist / and poet, who would tell / to us, pictorially and / in quatrain, what the / prairie and what Chicago / have told an uncomprom- / ising soul. LLEWELLYN JONES
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page: 4 (blank)
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page: 5
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WORDS
Hi there! / Hi there! / The season is open. / Come hunt with me. / Come hunt them singly / And in flocks; / The sly, the downy, / Swift, strong, / Irreplaceable words.
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page 6
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page 7
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MIGRATORY URGE
Winds of May / Have in my nostril / The pungency of camp-ifres / That were ashes ages gone, / Bring to my ear the click / Of ponies' hooves that pick / Careful way / Adown precipitous trails.
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UNTITLED
woodcut
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page 8
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page 9
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COAST SIREN
November shuts the stable / On Chicago. The old cow / Moos incessant from the lake / Her sodden breath / Fogs the side streets and drifs / From the cheap shrine / In the nun's garden / Under my window.
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STEEL CONSTRUCTION (1928)
woodcut
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page 10
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page 11
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DETACHMENT
Bare head and knees, A / Young girl walks down the / Boulevard playing a uke' / Against roar os Saturday / Afternoon rush. / Lips move / To beat of bare forearm. / Can hear herself?
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To love cats and / Canaries: is it not to be / In little, like God? / God and the artist / Experimental creators.
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page 12
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page 13
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LODGING-HOUSE ROOM
The poet improvises / Aloud; often wih fervor, / Occasionally / Says shocking things. / The landlay stands / With her ear to the crack, / Angry, but puzzled; / She didn't see / Anybody go in there!
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LANDLADY (1928)
woodcut
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page: 14
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page: 15
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BEES I
BURDENING AND DISBURDENING /
YELLOW AND BLACK AND /
VELVET-FIMBRIATE, WHIRRING RAYS /
FALLEN AT VARYING ANGLES /
ON BEADED AMBER LIGHTS /
AND VIOLET SHADE. /
BUT SOMEWHERE ARE VERMILIONS /
AND ORCHIDS - AND VIDID GREENS
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I I
DELIBERATE RUMMAGER, /
AMBIDEXTROUS. DEDMEARED, /
POLLEN-WEIGHTED FROM SUN-FLOWERS /
ALONG A NEIGHBOR'S YEAR /
(ZOROASTRIANS BOWLING, MORN AND EVE) /
BT ORIENTS BLAZE; WITH ORANGE, /
LAZULI, ORIFLAMMES OVER-DYED!
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page: 16
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page: 17
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I I I
DRINKING AT THE BRINK OF THE /
RAIN-WATER BARREL NORTH THE HOUSE; /
MOW AND LUMBER-ROOM RESOUND /
THEIR DOUBLE-BASS, /
DIVULGING MYSTERIES /
OF SHADOWED EAVES. /
BUT SOUTHD UNBOUND AND WARM /
FLOUT THESE UMBER DOMRDTICITIES!
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I V
ON ODOROUS DRIFT-WIND COME /
A-PRYING INTO JELLIES DRYING IN /
THE SUN; CRAWLING SECOND STORY /
THIEVES, BRONZE TRINKETS /
LOST IN BORDERED MIGNONETTE. /
BUT LAMELLAR EMERALD /
WINGS GLOW IN MELLOWER WORLDS!
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page 18
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page 19
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V
While sapping abundance from rare-ripe / Grapes, from aromatic windfalls / Hid in orchard grass, / All the dewless hours / Blend orlo rebec and lute / In droning, strains. / But suns and winds somewhere / Are redolent of riper / Fruits and stains.
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+ IVAN + MESTROVIC +
Sublime caricaturist / Seeing mountains as men kneeling / Women as valleys + / Spreading. Master of gesture / Carving finger as supple / Tendril of vine, eye + / Looking inward, searching / The Breast; men as mountains / Women as vines, children as unripe / Berries clinging to the vines.
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page 20
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page 21
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CAT BEHIND CURTAIN (1928)
woodcut
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UN-JURIED ART EXHIBITIONS
Strange cats blatant / On the back fence / Are not of necessity / More admirable / Than familiar cats purring / On rugs
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page 22
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page 23
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FAC,C,I'S "PIETA"
I came out of her. / She has given birth / To countless children / Before me. / I am one of her youngest. / I contended with her, / With elder brothers, / Especially with those / Of the dame litter with me. / I agonized, I lost.
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I I
She has looked on sorrow / Below depth yet she smiles. / She was jealous of my / C,od-like wnadering, / Secretly glag that I melt. / Returning into herself, / Once more she claims me / Wholly and she smiles.
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page 24
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page 25
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PRIDE
Perfume of you, Rose, / Curved petal, / Proud stem of you, / Rose, aloof swayed leaf! / My skill but defames you Rose; / My pigments insult your shimmer.
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UNTITLED
woodcut
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page 26
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page 27
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GOAL
I have qualified / As an Indiana artist; / I have spent a day / At the dunes. - have painted / A dune, have slid / Down a dune. - qualified!
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THE JURY ON ART
We wouldn't call it / A landscape for / We're not sure / About the trees, nor / A figure-piece because / There's still-life in it. / Surely it's not a portrait! / The man couldn't look / That way. There's / A fish-bowl, might / It be a marine? / We fear it's what / They cal a work of / Art. Quick! Face it / To the wall!
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page 28
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page 29
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WITCHFIRE (1928)
woodcut
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PRAIRIE CHILD
A child, she would run / At evening in the dust / of the prairie road; / Dust still warm where the sun / had polled, running, between stars. / Woman, she walks / With the cold inland sea, strokes / His flank when he purrs. / Watching to catch his mobility / in the permanence called art.
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page: 30
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page: 31
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REDON'S "MYSTERE"
BLIND EYES THAT LOOK ON /
BUDS OF A NAMELESS GARDEN /
OPENING IN THE DEWS /
OF NETHER WORLDS. /
MUTE LIPS, PAST JOY, /
PAST SOBBING. /
LOVING REMORSE.
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WITCHES' SONG
EARTH - SMELL IN DARK /
OF THE MOON; SWING QUARTER /
DEAD LEAVES FLOATING /
ON BRACKISH WATER /
SWIRL AROUND! /
STRIKE A USED MATCH TO SEE /
A BLIND MAN RUNNING BACKWARD. /
DRIED EAR OF A DEAD RABBIT; /
BITE A HOUND.
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page 32
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page 33
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UNTITLED
woodcut
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AN INTELLIGENCE IN A SMALL TOWN
Oh, those women! How / Should I endure them if they / Did not ignore me? / Better to die of / Lonliness that of boredom!
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page: 34
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page: 35
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GARRET
All day / The patter of bird-feet / On the shingle. / Birds go and storm-winds / Cone to cling by strong talon / Just under the eave and moan / The rain / Drums with cold fingers / on a life of pain.
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HAVE HEARD, HAVE SEEN?
Can you hear / The bleating from the / sheep-fold / When the rist lambs are born / Into the last March snow? / Can you coun the quail- / tracks by the walnut-rail / fence?
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page 36
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page 37
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DICTATION
Words uttered by one / Who thought in symbols / Very long ago, - who / Never knew the luxury / Of verbs: "great water- / Humbs of many bison, / Little water in sunshine - / Eye like straight line, / Hand to ear."
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PLAINS BISON (1928)
woodcut
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page 38
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page 39
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UNTITLED
woodcut
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ALONE IN THE HOUSE
Silence - / Punctuated by sharp sounds; / Martens click as they swing, / Cocks chortle form coop, rat / Skitters home to woodpile. / Songbirds coasting down long / Smooth airways birng up / Against low-sheltering / Cherry trees. Tall ragweeds / Fold their large white palms, / Lean helpless on the insuck, / Light goes and fireflies flare. / Far white houses blare. / Tall ragweed sudden turns / About, straining from / The storm. Strong gusts / Insult my gazing face, / Slap, - slap.
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page: 40
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I I
I GO INDOORS AND CLOSE
AND LOCK AND GO UPSTAIRS.
AT WEST WHITE WINDOW-SASH
I REST WHITE CHIN. THROUGH
LOCKED DOORD AT HEIGHT OF STORM
THE INSIDIOUS ONE WILL COME!
INCESSANT WIND AND RAIN
THROUGH THRASHING TREES.
I MAY NOT BREATHE.
AUTOS RUMBLE DOWN THE ROAD
NEAR AND LOUDER BUT NEVER PASS,
NEAR AND LOUDER.
BY WINKING LIGHT ON WICKETS IN
THE GARDEN
THE UNRIPE FRUIT GLEAMS WHITE.
A SPARK DRIVEN ON THE GALE.
TERROR-GLANCE TO BARN, BACK
TO BSPARK. IT SINKS ON A POOL.
FLAMES GREEN AND DIES.
THE FIREFLIES!
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page: 41
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WHAT'S THAT! THE INSIDIOUS ONE
PASSED THE CORNER OF THE HOUSE.
THE COMBINED ROARS CHANGE KEY,
F SHARP THE VOICES SCREECH.
BY NOW THE FRUITS ARE BRUISED
TOMORROW IN THE SUN
THEY WILL ROT WHERE THEY
HANG.
THE BIG TREE LEANS TO ME;
CHIN ON SASH, FACE WET,
HAIR DRIPPING INTO NECK.
SWIPES GREEN FINGER OVER
BROW - A LAST SHRIVING -
SNAP, TWIST, BONE BREAK
ON KEY OF THE STORM,
CRASH ON ROOF.
SUSPENSE. IT WOULD SEEM
THE ROOF - COMB HOLDS.
BUT BRUISED FRUIT MOULDS.
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page: 42
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I I I
THERE!
THE STEP ON THR STAIR;
SOFT,- SLOW,- UP,- UP,-
HIGHER,- HIGHER,-
THE FIRST TURN,- UP,- UP,-
THE SECOND TURN,-
NEAR, NEARER,-
IN THE DOORWAY.
IT IS NOT WHITE, IT IS
THE COLOR OF MOULD.
IT IS THE COLOR OF MOULD.
I DO NOT SCREAM NOR WAIT
FOR IT TO CROSS THE ROOM
AND TOUCH MY FLESH.
KNUCKLES PRESSED TO PALM
I STEP TO MET
THE INSIDIOUS ONE.
MY THOUGHT QUESTIONS.
IT'S EYES REPLY, CYNIC. A
SLIGHT SMILE. INDIFFERENCE |
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page: 43
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A small bird's trilling / throat. My lover's flashing wit. / Poignant drean / Of heart's desire, / Brosted bell / Of autumn down, - / These will throb in / my spent corpse.
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page 44
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page 45
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WAIF
I have caressed the quick / Creen of an evening sky. / I have known a scarlet flower. / I have thrown / My arm across the shoulder / Of the moon / And togehter / We have proved t he shadows / of a pond. / Then does it matter that I go / Unvalued and I hunger!
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NUDES BESIDE POOL (1928)
woodcut
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page 46
SLANDERERS
Coasts of all the world / Shout down great conversation / Justice dreams and Frame / Plays chance ** Sea-winds / And old tides / Whisper a garbled story
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page 47
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page 48
SHOP-TALK
The vowel is the word, / The vertebra of the word, / A sequence of vowels / The spinal column / Of a phrase: * * birds / Singing, over waterfalls.
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page 49
BIRD AND WATERFALL (1928)
woodcut
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page: 50
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AUTUMN IN A PARK
GARDEN BLOOMS FADE
RUSTY
UNDER RATTLING GRAPE
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GROWN HEDGES.
BY SALUTARY DECREE
I MAY NOT PICK
MAUVE ASTERS
I HAVE MOWN
IN MY OWN MEADOW.
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page: 51
PICKING DAISIES (1928)
woodcut
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page: 52
BEGGARED
I have lived on hope / So many years; And ope is / Such a meagre fare; / If I should now be led in / To the shining spread of life / I could not eat & laugh / But only long / For gloom and silence / And my bowl and single spoon
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page: 53
BOWL AND BOOK (1928)
woodcut
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page 54
PAN HOMESICK
Thrill of a stray curled leaf / To Pan exiled in cities! / Sheer loveliness to exist / When night sweeps mist / under towers, / Entangling fog-thread / around fingers of power-poles. / Swish of scudding snow / On hairy hock / Of pan exiled in cities!
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page 55
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page: 56
Bankrupt
BANKRUPT
The Inventor of new values, / When his show's closed / By sorid compatriots, / gives / The most beautiful word / As forfeit and leans / A back-drop against the sky.
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page: 57
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page: 58 [blank]
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page 59
Number 102 of one hundred and nine
signed and numbered copies printed from
the wood blocks on Spanish hand-made paper
at The Hogarth Press. Chicago, November. 1928
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page 60 [blank]
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cover [inside]
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