Songs, Sighs and Curses THE GLEBE VOLUME 1 NUMBER 1 SEPTEMBER 1913 PRICE OF THIS ISSUE 60 CENTS By Adolf Wolff Songs, Sighs and Curses By Adolf Wolff SEPTEMBER 1913 Published by THE GLEBE at Ridgefield, New Jersey Copyright, 1913 By Adolf Wolff. TO LEONARD D. ABBOTT. Dear Friend:--To whom else than to you can I dedicate this little wreath of poems? Weeds or flowers, without you, they would not have been. Your interest, your sympathy, your appreciation were the sunshine and rain that brought them forth--to blossom for a moment or forever. ADOLF WOLFF. NOTE.--All the poems in this volume were written in the year 1912-13. When asked in what sequence he would arrange his poems, Wolff threw the manuscripts in the air, saying, "Let Fate decide." They now appear in the order in which they were picked up from the floor. This is true of all except the proem and those comprising the group under the heading "To One Who Could Not Love," which appear towards the end of the volume. THE PROEM I sing and sigh and also curse, Thus only can I give expression To that which will not brook repression; I am alive, I have a voice, And so I sing and sigh and curse-- All life doth sing and sigh and curse. The joy of love is in my song, I sigh for pleasures yet untasted-- For things I dream--o'er moments wasted And sometimes interrupt my song With clenched fist to curse a wrong-- It is a joy to curse a wrong. And so I sing and sigh and curse-- All life doth sing and sigh and curse. CAPTIVES I visited the Zoo one dreary day, And in the lion's house I watched a lion, A great Numidian lion in his cage, With eyes three-quarters closed, with haughty gait, Pace up and down the limits of his cage. Was he oblivious of the tyrant bars, The gaze of human eyes, his captive state, And did he blink but better thus to see The jungle's vast expanse? He suddenly stood still; and, face to face, We stood and stared into each other's eyes, And we each saw in one another's eyes A royal captive in a wretched cage. IF I WERE GOD