Poem for June 2018: 'Let no charitable Hope'

Let no charitable Hope

  

 Now let no charitable hope

Confuse my mind with images

Of eagle and of antelope:

I am in nature none of these.

I was, being human, born alone;

I am, being woman, hard beset;

I live by squeezing from a stone
The little nourishment I get.

In masks outrageous and austere

The years go by in single file;

But none has merited my fear,

  And none has quite escaped my smile.

 Elinor Wylie, 1923. She lived from 1885-1928 and was an American poet and novelist.