A silver pool

Chapter 3: “BEGGAR-MAN, THIEF”

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About This Book

The volume gathers short, lyrical poems that move between intimate confession and vivid, travel-tinted scenes, often using sea, desert, and carnival imagery to evoke longing and desire. Many pieces treat love, loss, and memory with devotional or elegiac tones, transforming personal feeling into music and visual metaphor. Occasional persona poems and translated voice-poems recall distant cultures and theatrical figures, while recurring motifs—stars, fires, pools, and painted streets—anchor the collection’s contemplative mood.

“BEGGAR-MAN, THIEF”

A beggar on the edge of town

Looked up and smiled at me,

And offered for the coin I held,

A seedling laurel tree.

A merchant in the market-place,

A laughing, lordly knave,

Filled my hands with tarnished gems,

And took the coin I gave.

If I could find that beggar-man,

I’d give to him my soul,

If he would share his bread with me,

And coppers from his bowl.