Two Poems by Cyrus Cassells

Beautiful Signor

By Cyrus Cassells 

     All dreams of the soul 

     End in a beautiful man’s or woman’s body. 

     —Yeats, “The Phases of the Moon” 

Whenever we wake,

still joined, enraptured—

at the window,

each clear night’s finish

the black pulse of dominoes

dropping to land;

whenever we embrace,

haunted, upwelling,

I know

a reunion is taking place—      

Hear me when I say

our love’s not meant to be

an opiate;

helpmate,

you are the reachable mirror

that dares me to risk

the caravan back

to the apogee, the longed-for

arms of the Beloved—

Dusks of paperwhites,

dusks of jasmine,

intimate beyond belief

beautiful Signor

no dread of nakedness

beautiful Signor

my long ship,

my opulence,

my garland

beautiful Signor

extinguishing the beggar’s tin,

the wind of longing

beautiful Signor

laving the ruined country,

the heart wedded to war

beautiful Signor

the kiln-blaze

in my body,

the turning heaven

beautiful Signor

you cover me with pollen

beautiful Signor

into your sweet mouth—

This is the taproot:

against all strictures,

desecrations,

I’ll never renounce,

never relinquish

the first radiance, the first

moment you took my hand—

This is the endless wanderlust:

dervish,

yours is the April-upon-April love

that kept me spinning even beyond

your eventful arms

toward the unsurpassed:

the one vast claiming heart,

the glimmering,

the beautiful and revealed Signor.

Return to Florence

By Cyrus Cassells

How do I convey the shoring gold

at the core of the Florentine bells’

commingled chimes?

Vast as a suddenly revealed

field of wheat,

that up-and-away gold

is equivalent to the match-burst

morning I returned,

intent as doubting Thomas,

to my old classroom terrace,

open to the showy, blue yes

of the bustling Arno,

to my timeless, sun-laved

Basilica of Santo Spirito,

and discovered

ebullient citizens reciting,

at a hundred different posts,

the same unbetraying passage

of Dante’s Paradise.

Cyrus Cassells is the author of four books of poetry: The Mud Actor, Soul Make a Path Through Shouting, Beautiful Signor, and More Than Peace and Cypresses. Among his honors are a Lannan Literary Award, a William Carlos Williams Award, a Pushcart Prize, two NEA grants, and a Lambda Literary Award, which he won for Beautiful Signor. He is a tenured Associate Professor of English at Texas State University-San Marcos, and lives in Paris and Austin.