Premiere

The searchlights ask the stars nothing

Among them going,

Tell them nothing, their sign of show

Being for more particular sight below.

Show, show, say they to the sight

Through the lamplight,

Raying cloud, cloud, and cloud to wake and start

The after-dinner heart.

There is stir in the driveways and rustle of departing,

With the hearts starting,

And sight can almost see, ear hear, at the lights’ core

Gathering, shining, what the lights are searching for.

From Collected Poems, 1930–83. Copyright © 1983 by Josephine Miles. Used with permission of the University of Illinois Press.