Perpetuum Mobile: The City | William Carlos Williams, 1936

—a dream
we dreamed
each
separately
we two

of love
and of
desire—

that fused
in the night—

in the distance
over
the meadows
by day
impossible—
The city
disappeared
when
we arrived—

A dream
a little false
toward which
now
we stand
and stare
transfixed—

All at once
in the east
rising!

All white!
small
as a flower—

a locust cluster
a shad bush
blossoming

Over the swamps
a wild
magnolia bud—
greenish
white
a northern
flower—

And so
we live
looking—

At night
it wakes
On the black
sky—

a dream
toward which
we love—
at night
more
than a little
false—

We have bred
we have dug
we have figured up
our costs
we have bought
an old rug—

We batter at our
unsatisfactory
brilliance—

There is no end
to desire—

Let us break
through
and go there

in
vain!

—delectable
amusement:

City

whose stars
of matchless
splendor—
and
in bright—edged
clouds
the moon—

bring

silence

breathlessly—

Tearful city
on a summer’s day
the hard grey
dwindling
in a wall of
rain—

farewell!

William Carlos Williams, Perpetuum Mobile: The City, 1936