William Carlos Williams

Here you will find the Poem Sub Terra of poet William Carlos Williams

Sub Terra

Where shall I find you? 
You, my grotesque fellows 
That I seek everywhere 
To make up my band? 
None, not one 
With the earthy tastes I require: 
The burrowing pride that rises 
Subtly as on a bush in May. 

Where are you this day? 
You, my seven-year locusts 
With cased wings? 
Ah, my beauties, how I long! 
That harvest 
That shall be your advent? 
Thrusting up through the grass, 
Up under the weeds, 
Answering me? 
That shall be satisfying! 
The light shall leap and snap 
That day as with a million lashes! 

Oh, I have you! 
Yes, you are about me in a sense, 
Playing under the blue pools 
That are my windows. 
But they shut you out still 
There in the half light? 
For the simple truth is 
That though I see you clear enough ? 
You are not there. 

It is not that?it is you, 
You I want, my companions! 
God! if I could only fathom 
The guts of shadows!? 
You to come with me 
Poking into negro houses 
With their gloom and smell! 
In among children 
Leaping around a dead dog! 
Mimicking 
Onto the lawns of the rich! 
You! 
To go with me a-tip-toe 
Head down under heaven, 
Nostrils lipping the wind!