Yesterday I was caressing your eyelids and embracing your proud neck,
and in my heart were honeyed hopes for your tomorrow.
Yesterday you were joyous, your calyxes parting over a kindly smile,
and I took comfort in you,
and the birds took comfort in you,
and the leaves enfolded you, and you were pampered and coquettish —
so why did you fall to the earth, wrapping your face in her breast?
***
Yesterday there were sweet dreams upon your eyelids,
and good fruits within you,
and redness in your cheeks,
and greenness in your body,
and fragrance and spirit in your shade —
before you fell!
***
Yesterday nourishment was carrying life to you,
and you were, in the tree, the embryo in the mother's womb,
the poem on the poet's lip,
the dream on the artist's eyelid,
the melody on the wing of the string —
so why did you fall?
***
Have you some grievance, that we may hear it?
Was the birds' playfulness painful?
Or the melody clamorous?
Or the nourishment bitter?
Was my hand rough?
Or the sun cruel?
Or life within you heavy?
***
Or did you wish to remain a bud,
that the cycle of time should not turn with you?
That your closed eyelids should never open —
so that dreams might keep hovering about them,
and lips keep kissing them,
and hands keep caressing them?!
***
And since we have not divined your secret:
will you not tell us of your enigmatic smile,
which lingers still upon your lips?
And will you not tell us of the birds you loved?
And the breaths you drew in?
And the visions you beheld?
And after all: perhaps your suicide is other than we supposed —
perhaps it is a mad adventure into the hidden places of life!...
1940
What is coal? It is the remains of trees, plants, mosses, and other growing things which in ages past stood upon the face of the earth; layers of rock afterward covered them, and hundreds of thousands of years passed over them, pressing them and turning them to stone.
What is petroleum? It is exactly like coal: it comes of the decomposition of the plants and trees that once stood above the earth. It may also come of the decomposition of the animals that lived upon the face of the globe. Some scientists believe that petroleum is formed of matter composed of animal and plant together. Petroleum is drawn out of the earth, and it was known to the ancients: the temple of Jupiter in Rome was lit with petroleum drawn from springs in Sicily.
The discovery of petroleum came about in the latter part of the nineteenth century, when work was under way in prospecting for salt springs.
In the year 1831 a man named Mandel went hunting with his friends near a salt spring, and while he was asleep his rifle went off by fate and destiny, and the bullet split the earth. When morning came, Mandel saw an oily, strong-smelling substance flowing out of the crack. And when he kindled a fire, a spark of it flew toward that oil, and a tremendous flame blazed up from it. Thereupon people rushed to obtain petroleum, and a company was formed in New York for drilling and extracting this oil.
