Lost Farmsteads

Here is another poem from Clark Ashton Smith (CAS) that was unpublished in his lifetime, and is not available on The Eldritch Dark, so here's the full text:

I love the fields and gardens
invaded by the wilderness,

retaken by weeds and herbs

that open their faithful flowerets

full of perfumes and honies.

I love the desolate apple-orchards --

the dying trees

lined with lichens --

I love the vines in the fruit-trees -- 

the mistletoe in the pear-tops.

I find, in some woodland bower,

the stones of a fallen fire-place

where springs a forsaken rose-bush

to which from all the country-side

voyage the vivid humming-birds.

At the edge of the cat-tails,

I know an ancient shed

with moss-grown reddish wall --

a house for vermin and fungi,

a factory of cobwebs.

Enisled among the bramble thickets,

I have seen a pathless meadow

where an aged quince-tree

bequeathes its wintry fruit

to the water of quagmires.

I have seen in the twilight,

beside a roofless pavement,

the flowers of the plum-tree whiten

like a pale phantom

called up by some grey magician.

And when the flickering bats

veer though the evenfall,

I scent the flying petals

of former life

in the mystic boughs.

CAS also wrote a Spanish version of this poem entitled "Las Alquerías perdidas".

It's unusual to find a poem from CAS that includes the phrase "I love"; for although he wrote quite a number of love lyrics, he rarely used the word itself in such direct terms.  

Of course, "Lost Farmsteads" is not a love poem, but a more of a pastoral musing on time passing.  Even when tackling such bucolic subject matter, CAS still manages to find a place for the weird imagery that he is known for:

I have seen in the twilight,
beside a roofless pavement,
the flowers of the plum-tree whiten
like a pale phantom
called up by some grey magician.

"Lost Farmsteads" is not one of CAS' greatest verses, but it has a quiet charm all its own.