when sunlight like honey is...

this is the afternoon and so it is time to make a
poem of the afternoon, to come up from under it
with a long sigh and to swing into it from above: the
afternoon, the golden time: to have no subject but
the world, life and the world, life in the world, the
texture of life the texture of every minute as it
passes

this is the afternoon and so it is time to make a
poem of the afternoon (the afternoon is making a
poem of itself)

afternoon, the afternoon, the people stand on the
sunlit quay and wait for the kanaris.

they stand on the quay and wait for the boat: the
canaris to arrive...

a long afternoon: an afternoon in the sun

the people stand in a kind of hushed silence;
waiting for the boat to appear on the (blue) horizon

an afternoon of hushed sunlight

a time of afternoon: the people stand in classical
poses waiting for the traditional return of the boat
to the island

and wait for the boat to appear on the blue horizon

a golden afternoon: when sunlight like honey is
poured on the land

they stand in hushed silence and nobody speaks

they are all there, all there, everyone from the town
is there

they stand on the quay in a hush of waiting and look
toward the (blue) horizon

this is the afternoon, a time to make a poem (of the
afternoon)

the afternoon is making a poem of itself

sunlight pours on the land like honey

(the sunlight lies on the land like a tender regard)

this is the afternoon (a time for its music)

sun, the sunlight is the (music) the music the music
(the music) the music (the music) the music the
music

of (this time) of the a(fter-noon)

the sunlight pours itself on the land and lies on the
land like a tender regard

they stand about and wait for the boat,

they wait for the boat, the canaris, to come in

robert lax, march 20, 1964, from stereo headphones # 8-8-10, 1982