I Thought It Was Tangiers I Wanted + 

I know now + 

That Notre Dame is in Paris. + 

And the Seine is more to me now + 

Than a wriggling line on a map + 

Or a name in travel stories. + 

I know now + 

There is a Crystal Palace in Antwerp + 

Where a hundred women sell their naked bodies, + 

And the night-lovers of sailors + 

Wait for men on docks in Genoa. + 

I know now + 

That a great golden moon + 

Like a picture-book moon + 

Really rises behind palm groves + 

In Africa, + 

And tom-toms do beat + 

In village squares under the mango trees. + 

I know now + 

That Venice is a church dome + 

And a net-work of canals, + 

Tangiers a whiteness under sun. + 

I thought + 

It was Tangiers I wanted, + 

Or the gargoyles of Notre Dame, + 

Or the Crystal Palace in Antwerp, + 

Or the golden palm-grove moon in Africa, + 

Or a church dome and a net-work of canals. + 

Happiness lies nowhere, + 

Some old fool said, + 

If not within oneself. + 

It’s a sure thing + 

Notre Dame is in Paris⁠— + 

But I thought it was Tangiers I wanted. + 