To Eugene J. Loveman
To Eugene J. Loveman
By Alexander F. Bergman
On the sea fringe
where the waves
wash umber on the crusted rocks,
sand whispers in scoured shells
and sea gulls poise
to plummet under surf
for silver little fish
Here where Columbus smiles
when steamers vanish
downhill in the east
we lit driftwood fires,
and in the sharkteeth flames
saw naked dancers on a jungle shore
worshipping weird idols and their gods.
We traced the lonely latitudes
where sad Magellan sailed,
and felt the tremor
of the other shore
beneath our feet
when giant combers fell.
The years have curtained down
behind the Jersey hills,
and now while you sleep
in the other shore of Spain
boys, as we were, wander here again
and scan the sea-lanes
where the cargoes ride
to lands where guntongues
bellow heavenward;
and when evening
drifts in from the east
they light perennial fires
And constant watchers
feed the phoenix flames
that flicker on the margins of the world.
Alexander Bergman (1912-1940), a left-wing Brooklyn, New York poet, died at age 29, leaving behind an elegy to his friend Eugene J. Loveman who was killed in the Spanish Civil War at Gandesa in 1938. See https://alba-valb.org/volunteers/eugene-jacob-loveman/ Bergman’s poetry was published posthumously under the title They Look Like Men in 1944. Thanks to poet Bill Ehrhart for locating this poem.