Page:Main Street and other poems, Kilmer, 1917.djvu/37

MAIN STREET AND OTHER POEMS APOLOGY

(For Eleanor Rogers Cox)

OR blows on the fort of evil

That never shows a breach,

For terrible life-long races

To a goal no foot can reach,

For reckless leaps into darkness

With hands outstretched to a star,

There is jubilation in Heaven

Where the great dead poets are.

There is joy over disappointment

And delight in hopes that were vain.

Each poet is glad there was no cure

To stop his lonely pain.

For nothing keeps a poet

In his high singing mood

Like unappeasable hunger

For unattainable food.

[ 31 ]