? Lit 14 Poetry Anthology @
LIST OF POEMS
“A Red, Red Rose” by Robert Burns ~ 9
“After a Great Pain, A Formal Feeling Comes”
“Litany” by Billy Collins ~ 10
“Mother to Son” by Langston Hughes ~ 8
by Emily Dickinson ~ 18
“Musée de Beaux-Arts” by W.H. Auden ~ 30
“At Seventeen” by Janice Ian ~ 23
“Nude” by Benilda Santos ~ 9
“Bad Driver, Good Lover” by L. Lacambra Ypil ~ 28
“One Art” by Elizabeth Bishop ~ 18
“Barbie Doll” by Marge Piercy ~ 21
“Paradise by the Dashboard Light” by Jim Steinman ~ 24
“Bringing the Dolls” by Merlie Alunan ~ 21
“Porphyria’s Lover” by Robert Browning ~ 12
“Conversation with a Stone” by Wislava Szymborska ~ 3
“Psalm 23” attributed to King David ~ 1
“Filipino American Barbie” by Luisa Igloria ~ 20
“Revolt from Hymen” by Angela Manalang-Gloria ~ 29
“First Lesson” by Philip Booth ~ 7
“Romance” by Arnold Rimbaud ~ 22
“Futility” by Wilfred Owen ~ 10
“Soledad” by Angela Manalang-Gloria ~ 8
“He is More Than a Hero” by Sappho ~ 2
“Still Life with Jeepney” by Ricardo De Ungria ~ 28
“i carry your heart with me” by e.e. cummings ~ 11
“Suicide Note” by Janice Mirikitani ~ 15
“If We Must Die” by Claude McKay ~ 14
“Sundays” by Jules Laforgue ~ 30
“Judas Iscariot” by Countee Cullen ~ 13
“Telemachus’ Fantasy” by Louise Glück ~ 17
“Landscape with the Fall of Icarus”
by William Carlos Williams ~ 29
“Las Ruinas del Corazon” by Eric Gamalinda ~ 6
“The Flea” by John Donne ~ 11
“The Frog Prince” by Stevie Smith ~ 5
“The Gods We Worship Live Next Door”
2
by Bienvenido Santos ~ 7
“Tonight I Can Write (the Saddest Lines)”
by Pablo Neruda ~ 19
“You Didn’t Fit” by Susan Musgrave ~ 16
“You Who Never Arrived” by Rainer Maria Rilke ~ 4
“Young Man in a Jeepney” by Merlie Alunan ~ 27
ATTRIBUTED TO KING DAVID
18. Shall surely follow me;
[
19. And in God’s house for evermore
Psalm 23
1.
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
2.
He maketh me to lie down
3.
in green pastures: he leadeth me
4.
the quiet waters by.
5.
My soul he doth restore again,
6.
And me to walk doth make
7.
Within the paths of righteousness,
8.
for his name’s sake.
9.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
10. Yet will I fear no ill:
11. For thou art with me, and thy rod
12. And staff me comfort still.
13. My table thou hast furnished
14. In presence of my foes;
15. My head thou dost with oil anoint
16. And my cup overflows.
17. Goodness and mercy all my life
20. My dwelling-place shall be.
3
SAPPHO
WISLAWA SZYMBORSKA
[
[
He is More Than a Hero
Conversation With A Stone
1.
He is more than a hero
1.
I knock at the stone's front door.
2.
he is a god in my eyes—
2.
"It's only me, let me come in.
3.
the man who is allowed
3.
I want to enter your insides,
4.
to sit beside you — he
4.
have a look round,
5.
breathe my fill of you."
5.
who listens intimately
6.
to the sweet murmur of
6.
"Go away," says the stone.
7.
your voice, the enticing
7.
"I'm shut tight.
8.
Even if you break me to pieces,
we'll all still be closed.
8.
laughter that makes my own
9.
9.
heart beat fast. If I meet
10. You can grind us to sand,
10. you suddenly, I can't
11. we still won't let you in."
11. speak — my tongue is broken;
12. I knock at the stone's front door.
12. a thin flame runs under
13. "It's only me, let me come in.
13. my skin; seeing nothing,
14. I've come out of pure curiosity.
15. Only life can quench it.
14. hearing only my own ears
16. I mean to stroll through your palace,
15. drumming, I drip with sweat;
17. then go calling on a leaf, a drop of water.
16. trembling shakes my body
18. I don't have much time.
19. My mortality should touch you."
17. and I turn paler than
18. dry grass. At such times
20. "I'm made of stone," says the stone,
19. death isn't far from me.
21. "and must therefore keep a straight face.
22. Go away.
4
23. I don't have the muscles to laugh."
48. "You lack the sense of taking part.
49. No other sense can make up for your missing sense of taking
24. I knock at the stone's front door.
part.
25. "It's only me, let me come in.
50. Even sight heightened to become all-seeing
26. I hear you have great empty halls inside you,
51. will do you no good without a sense of taking part.
27. unseen, their beauty in vain,
52. You shall not enter, you have only a sense of what that sense
28. soundless, not echoing anyone's steps.
should be,
29. Admit you don't know them well yourself."
53. only its seed, imagination."
30. "Great and empty, true enough," says the stone,
54. I knock at the stone's front door.
31. "but there isn't any room.
55. "It's only me, let me come in.
32. Beautiful, perhaps, but not to the taste
56. I haven't got two thousand centuries,
33. of your poor senses.
57. so let me come under your roof."
34. You may get to know me, but you'll never know me through.
35. My whole surface is turned toward you,
58. "If you don't believe me," says the stone,
36. all my insides turned away."
59. "just ask the leaf, it will tell you the same.
60. Ask a drop of water, it will say what the leaf has said.
37. I knock at the stone's front door.
61. And, finally, ask a hair from your own head.
38. "It's only me, let me come in.
62. I am bursting with laughter, yes, laughter, vast laughter,
39. I don't seek refuge for eternity.
63. although I don't know how to laugh."
40. I'm not unhappy.
41. I'm not homeless.
64. I knock at the stone's front door.
42. My world is worth returning to.
65. "It's only me, let me come in."
43. I'll enter and exit empty-handed.
44. And my proof I was there
45. will be only words,
46. which no one will believe."
47. "You shall not enter," says the stone.
66. "I don't have a door," says the stone.
5
RAINER MARIA RILKE
25. Who knows? Perhaps the same
[
26. bird echoed through both of us
You Who Never Arrived
27. yesterday, separate, in the evening...
1.
You who never arrived
2.
in my arms, Beloved, who were lost
3.
from the start,
4.
I don't even know what songs
5.
would please you. I have given up trying
1.
I am a frog
6.
to recognize you in the surging wave of
2.
I live under a spell
7.
the next moment. All the immense
3.
I live at the bottom
8.
images in me -- the far-off, deeply-felt
4.
Of a green well
9.
landscape, cities, towers, and bridges, and
10. unsuspected turns in the path,
5.
And here I must wait
11. and those powerful lands that were once
6.
Until a maiden places me
12. pulsing with the life of the gods--
7.
On her royal pillow
13. all rise within me to mean
8.
And kisses me
14. you, who forever elude me.
9.
In her father's palace.
15. You, Beloved, who are all
10. The story is familiar
16. the gardens I have ever gazed at,
11. Everybody knows it well
17. longing. An open window
12. But do other enchanted people feel as nervous
18. in a country house-- , and you almost
13. As I do? The stories do not tell,
STEVIE SMITH
[
The Frog Prince
19. stepped out, pensive, to meet me.
20. Streets that I chanced upon,--
14. Ask if they will be happier
21. you had just walked down them and vanished.
15. When the changes come
22. And sometimes, in a shop, the mirrors
16. As already they are fairly happy
23. were still dizzy with your presence and,
17. In a frog's doom?
24. startled, gave back my too-sudden image.
6
18. I have been a frog now
42. And I think it will be.
19. For a hundred years
20. And in all this time
43. Come then, royal girl and royal times,
21. I have not shed many tears,
44. Come quickly,
45. I can be happy until you come
22. I am happy, I like the life,
46. But I cannot be heavenly,
23. Can swim for many a mile
47. Only disenchanted people
24. (When I have hopped to the river)
48. Can be heavenly.
25. And am for ever agile.
26. And the quietness,
27. Yes, I like to be quiet
28. I am habituated
29. To a quiet life,
30. But always when I think these thoughts
31. As I sit in my well
32. Another thought comes to me and says:
33. It is part of the spell
34. To be happy
35. To work up contentment
36. To make much of being a frog
37. To fear disenchantment
38. Says, it will be heavenly
39. To be set free,
40. Cries, Heavenly the girl who disenchants
41. And the royal times, heavenly,
7
ERIC GAMALINDA
15. he was alone. And she kept his body beside her, and every day
[
16. for the next twenty years, while pungent potions filled the
Las Ruinas del Corazon
1.
Juana the Mad married the handsomest man in Spain
2.
and that was the end of it, because when you marry a man
3.
more beautiful than you, they say you pretty much lost control
4.
of the situation. Did she ever listen? No. When he was away
5.
annexing more kingdoms, she had horrible dreams
6.
of him being cut and blown away, or spread on the rack,
7.
or sleeping with exotic women. She prayed to the twin
guardians
8.
of the Alhambra, Saint Ursula and Saint Susana, to send him
home
9.
and make him stay forever. And they answered her prayers,
10. and killed Philip the Handsome at twenty-eight.
11. Juana the Mad was beside herself with grief, and she wrapped
12. his body in oils and lavender, and laid him out in a casket of
lead,
13. and built a marble effigy of the young monarch in sleep,
14. and beside it her own dead figure, so he would never think
rooms,
17. she peeked into his coffin like a chef peeks into his pot,
18. and memories of his young body woke her adamant desire.
19. She wanted to possess him entirely, and since not even death
20. may oppose the queen, she found a way to merge death and life
21. by eating a piece of him, slowly, lovingly, until he was entirely
22. in her being. She cut a finger and chewed the fragrant skin,
23. then sliced thick portions of his once ruddy cheeks. Then she ate
24. an ear, the side of a thigh, the solid muscles of the chest,
25. then lunged for an eye, a kidney, part of the large intestine.
26. Then she diced his penis and his pebble-like testicles
27. and washed everything down with sweet jerez.
28. Then she decided she was ready to die.
29. But before she did, she asked the poets to record these moments
30. in song, and the architects to carve the song in marble,
31. and the marble to be extracted from the most secret veins
32. of the earth and placed where no man could see it,
33. because that is the nature of love, because one walks alone
8
34. through the ruins of the heart, because the young must sleep
BIENVENIDO N. SANTOS
[
35. with their eyes open, because the angels tremble
36. from so much beauty, because memory moves in orbits
37. of absence, because she holds her hands out in the rain,
38. and rain remembers nothing, not even how it became itself.
The Gods We Worship Live Next Door
1.
The gods we worship live next door, they're brown
2.
And how easily they catch cold sneezing
3.
Too late into their sleeves and brandishing
4.
Their arms in air. Fear grips us when they frown
5.
As they walk past our grim deformities
6.
Dragging with them the secret scent of love
7.
Bought by the ounce from gilded shops above
8.
The rotunda east of the bright cities.
9.
In the cold months of fog and heavy rains,
10. Our gods die one by one and caskets golden
11. Are born on the hard pavements at even
12. Down roads named after them, across plains
13. Where all gods go. Oh, we outlive them all
14. But there are junior gods fast growing tall.
9
PHILIP BOOTH
LANGSTON HUGHES
[
[
Mother to Son
First Lesson
1.
Lie back daughter, let your head
1.
Well, son, I'll tell you:
2.
be tipped back in the cup of my hand.
2.
Life for me ain't been no crystal stair.
3.
Gently, and I will hold you. Spread
3.
It's had tacks in it,
4.
your arms wide, lie out on the stream
4.
And splinters,
5.
and look high at the gulls. A dead-
5.
And boards torn up,
6.
man's float is face down. You will dive
6.
And places with no carpet on the floor --
7.
and swim soon enough where this tidewater
7.
Bare.
8.
ebbs to the sea. Daughter, believe
8.
But all the time
9.
me, when you tire on the long thrash
9.
I'se been a-climbin' on,
10. to your island, lie up, and survive.
10. And reachin' landin's,
11. As you float now, where I held you
11. And turnin' corners,
12. and let go, remember when fear
12. And sometimes goin' in the dark
13. cramps your heart what I told you:
13. Where there ain't been no light.
14. lie gently and wide to the light-year
14. So boy, don't you turn back.
15. stars, lie back, and the sea will hold you.
15. Don't you set down on the steps
16. 'Cause you finds it's kinder hard.
17. Don't you fall now -18. For I'se still goin', honey,
19. I'se still climbin',
20. And life for me ain't been no crystal stair.
10
ANGELA MANALANG-GLORIA
BENILDA SANTOS
[
[
Soledad
Nude
1.
It was a sacrilege, the neighbors cried,
1.
I rise from the bed
2.
The way she shattered every mullioned pane
2.
sperm spilt
3.
To let a firebrand in. They tried in vain
3.
on my right thigh
4.
To understand how one so carved from pride
4.
a spectre heavy with
5.
And glassed in dream could have so flung aside
5.
an unclean spot
6.
Her graven days, or why she dared profane
6.
somewhere.
7.
The bread and wine of life for some insane
8.
Moment with him. The scandal never died.
7.
I move and not move
8.
from the bed
9.
to the lavatory;
9.
But no one guessed that loveliness would claim
10. Her soul's cathedral burned by his desires
10. a hairless cat
11. Or that he left her aureoled in flame…
11. pregnant with
12. And seeing nothing but her blackened spires,
12. stained syllables of ecstasy.
13. The town condemned this girl who loved too well
14. and found her heaven in the depths of hell.
13. I return to the bed
14. of my innermost softness
15. I rest my back
16. on the hollow of my back
17. on white linen covers.
18. Now
19. I do not know
20. Which to unbutton first:
21. the skin
22. that puts my heart in place
11
23. or the scalp
11. And fare thee weel, awhile!
24. that keeps me from eternally rising
12. And I will come again, my luve
25. resplendent
13. Tho' it ware ten thousand mile!
26. in a shroud of
27. shimmering secrets,
28. fiercely defying
29. the pull of gravity
30. of a vengeful
31. morning.
ROBERT BURNS
[
A Red, Red Rose
1.
My Luve's like a red, red rose,
2.
That's newly sprung in June;
3.
My Luve's like the melodie
4.
That's sweetly played in tune.
5.
As fair art thou, my bonnie lass,
6.
So deep in luve am I;
7.
And I will luve thee still, my dear,
8.
Till a' the seas gang dry, my dear
9.
While the sands o' life shall run.
10. And fare thee weel, my only luve,
12
BILLY COLLINS
[
Litany
1.
You are the bread and the knife,
2.
the crystal goblet and the wine.
3.
You are the dew on the morning grass
4.
and the burning wheel of the sun.
5.
You are the white apron of the baker,
6.
and the marsh birds suddenly in flight.
7.
However, you are not the wind in the orchard,
8.
the plums on the counter,
9.
or the house of cards.
22. I also happen to be the shooting star,
23. the evening paper blowing down an alley
24. and the basket of chestnuts on the kitchen table.
25. I am also the moon in the trees
26. and the blind woman's tea cup.
27. But don't worry, I'm not the bread and the knife.
28. You are still the bread and the knife.
29. You will always be the bread and the knife,
30. not to mention the crystal goblet and--somehow--the wine.
10. And you are certainly not the pine-scented air.
11. There is just no way that you are the pine-scented air.
12. It is possible that you are the fish under the bridge,
13. maybe even the pigeon on the general's head,
14. but you are not even close
WILFRED OWEN
15. to being the field of cornflowers at dusk.
[
16. And a quick look in the mirror will show
1.
Move him into the sun—
17. that you are neither the boots in the corner
2.
Gently its touch awoke him once,
18. nor the boat asleep in its boathouse.
3.
At home, whispering of fields unsown.
4.
Always it awoke him, even in France,
19. It might interest you to know,
5.
Until this morning and this snow.
20. speaking of the plentiful imagery of the world,
6.
If anything might rouse him now
21. that I am the sound of rain on the roof.
7.
The kind old sun will know.
Futility
13
15. And cloister'd in these living walls of jet 1.
8.
Think how it wakes the seeds—
16. Though use make you apt to kill me,
9.
Woke, once, the clays of a cold star.
17. Let not to that self-murder added be,
10. Are limbs so dear-achieved, are sides
18. And sacrilege, three sins in killing three.
11. Full-nerved,—still warm,—too hard to stir?
12. Was it for this the clay grew tall?
19. Cruell and sodaine2, hast thou since
13. —O what made fatuous sunbeams toil
20. Purpled thy nail in blood of innocence?
14. To break earth's sleep at all?
21. Wherein could this flea guilty be,
JOHN DONNE
22. Except in that drop which it suck'd from thee?
[
23. Yet thou triumph'st, and say'st that thou
The Flea
1.
MARK but this flea, and mark in this,
2.
How little that which thou deniest me is ;
3.
It suck'd me first, and now sucks thee,
4.
And in this flea our two bloods mingled be.
5.
Thou know'st that this cannot be said
6.
A sin, nor shame, nor loss of maidenhead ;
7.
Yet this enjoys before it woo,
8.
And pamper'd swells with one blood made of two ;
9.
And this, alas ! is more than we would do.
24. Find'st not thyself nor me the weaker now.
25. 'Tis true ; then learn how false fears be ;
26. Just so much honour, when thou yield'st to me,
27. Will waste, as this flea's death took life from thee.
E. E. CUMMINGS
10. O stay, three lives in one flea spare,
11. Where we almost, yea, more than married are.
[
i carry your heart with me
12. This flea is you and I, and this
13. Our marriage bed, and marriage temple is.
14. Though parents grudge, and you, we're met,
1
Jet - a deep, glossy black stone. This is of course a reference to the colour of a
flea, and is especially strong imagery when one compares the lifeless stone with
the "living walls".
2
Sodaine - violent
14
1.
i carry your heart with me (i carry it in
ROBERT BROWNING
2.
my heart) i am never without it (anywhere
[
3.
i go you go, my dear; and whatever is done
4.
by only me is your doing, my darling)
5.
i fear
6.
no fate (for you are my fate, my sweet) i want
7.
no world (for beautiful you are my world, my true)
8.
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
9.
and whatever a sun will always sing is you
10. here is the deepest secret nobody knows
11. (here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
12. and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows
13. higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
14. and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart
15. i carry your heart (i carry it in my heart)
Porphyria’s Lover
1.
The rain set early in tonight,
2.
The sullen wind was soon awake,
3.
It tore the elm-tops down for spite,
4.
And did its worst to vex the lake:
5.
I listened with heart fit to break.
6.
When glided in Porphyria; straight
7.
She shut the cold out and the storm,
8.
And kneeled and made the cheerless grate
9.
Blaze up, and all the cottage warm;
10. Which done, she rose, and from her form
11. Withdrew the dripping cloak and shawl,
12. And laid her soiled gloves by, untied
13. Her hat and let the damp hair fall,
14. And, last, she sat down by my side
15. And called me. When no voice replied,
16. She put my arm about her waist,
17. And made her smooth white shoulder bare,
18. And all her yellow hair displaced,
19. And, stooping, made my cheek lie there,
20. And spread, o'er all, her yellow hair,
21. Murmuring how she loved me — she
22. Too weak, for all her heart's endeavor,
23. To set its struggling passion free
24. From pride, and vainer ties dissever,
25. And give herself to me forever.
15
26. But passion sometimes would prevail,
54. That all it scorned at once is fled,
27. Nor could tonight's gay feast restrain
55. And I, its love, am gained instead!
28. A sudden thought of one so pale
56. Porphyria's love: she guessed not how
29. For love of her, and all in vain:
57. Her darling one wish would be heard.
58. And thus we sit together now,
30. So, she was come through wind and rain.
59. And all night long we have not stirred,
31. Be sure I looked up at her eyes
60. And yet God has not said a word!
32. Happy and proud; at last l knew
33. Porphyria worshiped me: surprise
COUNTEE CULLEN
34. Made my heart swell, and still it grew
[
35. While I debated what to do.
36. That moment she was mine, mine, fair,
37. Perfectly pure and good: I found
38. A thing to do, and all her hair
39. In one long yellow string l wound
40. Three times her little throat around,
41. And strangled her. No pain felt she;
42. I am quite sure she felt no pain.
43. As a shut bud that holds a bee,
44. I warily oped her lids: again
45. Laughed the blue eyes without a stain.
46. And l untightened next the tress
47. About her neck; her cheek once more
48. Blushed bright beneath my burning kiss:
49. I propped her head up as before,
50. Only, this time my shoulder bore
51. Her head, which droops upon it still:
52. The smiling rosy little head,
53. So glad it has its utmost will,
Judas Iscariot
1.
I think when Judas' mother heard
2.
his faint cry the night
3.
that he was born, that worship stirred
4.
her at the sound and sight.
5.
She thought his was as fair a frame
6.
as flesh and blood had worn;
7.
I think she made his lovely name
8.
for him -- "Star of my morn."
9.
As any mother's son he grew
10. from spring to crimson spring;
11. I think his eyes were black, or blue,
12. his hair curled like a ring.
13. His mother's heart-strings were a lute
14. whereon he all day played;
15. She listened rapt, abandoned, mute,
16. to every note he made.
16
42. with sullen, drunken lurch,
17. I think he knew the growing Christ,
43. He said to Peter, "Feed my sheep,
18. and played with Mary's son,
44. and build my holy church."
19. and where mere mortal craft sufficed,
45. He gave to each the special task
20. there Judas may have won.
46. that should be his to do,
21. Perhaps he little cared or knew,
47. but reaching one, I hear him ask,
22. So folly-wise is youth,
48. "What shall I give to you?"
23. that he whose hand his hand clung to
24. was flesh-embodied truth.
49. Then Judas in his hot desire
50. said, "Give me what you will."
25. Until one day he heard young Christ,
51. Christ spoke to him with words of fire,
26. with far-off eyes agleam,
52. "Then Judas you must kill
27. tell of a mystic, solemn tryst
53. One whom you love, One who loves you
28. between him and a dream.
54. as only God's son can:
29. And Judas listened, wonder-eyed
55. This is the work for you to do
30. until the Christ was through,
56. to save the creature man."
31. then said, "And I, though good betide,
32. or ill, will go with you."
57. "And men to come will curse your name,
58. and hold you up to scorn;
33. And so he followed, heard Christ preach,
59. In all the world will be no shame
34. saw how by miracle
60. like yours; this is love's thorn.
35. the blind man saw, the dumb got speech,
61. It takes strong will of heart and soul
36. the leper found him well.
62. but man is under ban.
37. And Judas, in those holy hours
63. Think, Judas, can you play this role
38. loved Christ and loved Him much.
64. in heaven's mystic plan?"
39. And in his heart he sensed dead flowers
40. bloom at the masters touch.
65. So Judas took the sorry part,
66. went out and spoke the word,
41. And when Christ felt the death hour creep
67. and gave the kiss that broke his heart,
17
68. but no one knew or heard.
94. as the little Jewish lad
69. And no one knew what poison ate
95. who gave young Christ heart, soul and limb,
70. into his palm that day,
96. and all the love he had.
71. where bright and damned, the monstrous weight
72. of thirty white coins lay.
73. It was not death that Judas found
CLAUDE MCKAY
74. upon a kindly tree;
[
75. The man was dead, long ere he bound
76. his throat as final fee.
77. And who can say if on that day
78. when gates of pearl swung wide,
79. Christ did not go his honored way
80. with Judas by his side?
81. I think somewhere a table round
82. owns Jesus as its head,
83. and there the saintly twelve are found
84. who followed where he led.
85. And Judas sits down with the rest,
86. and none shrinks from his hand,
87. for there the worst is as the best,
88. and there they understand.
89. And you may think of Judas, friend,
90. as one who broke his word,
91. whose neck came to a bitter end
92. for giving up his Lord.
93. But I would rather think of him
If We Must Die
1.
If we must die, let it not be like hogs
2.
Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot,
3.
While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs,
4.
Making their mock at our accursèd lot.
5.
If we must die, O let us nobly die,
6.
So that our precious blood may not be shed
7.
In vain; then even the monsters we defy
8.
Shall be constrained to honor us though dead!
9.
O kinsmen! we must meet the common foe!
10. Though far outnumbered let us show us brave,
11. And for their thousand blows deal one death-blow!
12. What though before us lies the open grave?
13. Like men we’ll face the murderous, cowardly pack,
14. Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back!
18
JANICE MIRIKITANI
[
20
with confidence.
Suicide Note
not good enough
...An Asian American college student was reported to have jumped to her
under a deep cover of snow. Her suicide note contained an apology to her
parents for having received less than a perfect four point grade average...
Tasks do not come easily.
25
Each disappointment,
ice above my river.
ink smeared like birdprints in snow.
not pretty enough not smart enough
So I have worked hard.
30
bone by bone, perched
I apologize
on the ledge of my womanhood,
for disappointing you.
not good enough
fragile as wings.
35
surely not good weather
If only I were a son, shoulders broad
for flying—this sparrow
as the sunset threading through pine,
I would see the light in my mother's
eyes, or the golden pride reflected
sillied and dizzied by the wind
40
I make this ledge my altar
of my wide, male hands worthy of work
to offer penance.
and comfort.
I would swagger through life
muscled and bold and assured,
drawing praises to me
on the edge.
not smart enough
in my father's dream
15
not strong enough
It is snowing steadily
harder, perhaps to please you.
10
not good enough
My sacrifice I will drop
dear mother and father.
I've worked very hard,
Each failure, a glacier.
Each disapproval, a bootprint.
How many notes written...
not good enough
not pretty enough not smart enough
I apologize.
death from her dormitory window. Her body was found two days later
5
like currents in the bed of wind, virile
This air will not hold me,
45
the snow burdens my crippled wings,
my tears drop like bitter cloth
softly into the gutter below.
19
not good enough
not pretty enough not smart enough
4.
Anywhere; you saw no reason to
5.
begin fitting now.
6.
When I was little I remember
on my broken body,
7.
a sheriff coming. You were
covers me like whispers
8.
taken to court because your
of sorries
9.
false teeth didn’t fit and you
sorries.
10. wouldn’t pay the dentist. It was
Perhaps when they find me
11. your third set, you said none of them
they will bury
12. fit properly. I was afraid then
my bird bones beneath
13. that something would take you from me
a sturdy pine
14. as it has done now: death
and scatter my feathers like
15. with a bright face and teeth that
unspoken song
16. fit perfectly.
Choices thin as shaved
50
ice. Notes shredded
drift like snow
55
60
over this white and cold and silent
breast of earth.
17. A human smile that shuts me out.
18. The Court, I remember, returned
19. your teeth, now marked an exhibit.
20. You were dismissed with costs
21. I never understood. The teeth were
SUSAN MUSGRAVE
22. terrible. We liked you better
[
23. without them.
You Didn’t Fit
for my father
1.
You didn't fit in your coffin
2.
but to me it was no surprise
3.
All your life you had never fit in
24. We didn’t fit, either, into your
25. life of loneliness, though you
26. tried, and we did too. Once
27. I wanted to marry you, and then left;
28. I’m still the child who won’t fit
29. into the arms of anyone, but it’s
20
30. always reaching .
2.
years on those islands: why
3.
was he so attractive
31. I was awkward for years, my bones
4.
to women? He was in straits then, I suppose
32. didn’t fit in my body but stuck out
5.
desperate. I believe
33. like my heart people used to comment
6.
women like to see a man
34. on it. They said I was very good
7.
still whole, still standing, but
35. at office parties where you took me
8.
about to go to pieces: such
36. and let others do the talking the
9.
disintegration reminds them
37. crude jokes, the corny men I saw
10. of passion. I think of them as living
38. how they hurt you and I loved you
11. their whole lives
39. harder than ever.
12. completely undressed. It must have
13. dazzled him, I think, women
40. Because neither of us fit. Later you
14. so much younger than he was
41. blamed me, said, “You must fit in,”
15. evidently wild for him, ready
42. but I didn’t and I still think
16. to do anything he wished. Is it
43. it made you secretly happy.
17. fortunate to encounter circumstances
18. so responsive to one’s own will, to live
44. Like I am now; you won’t fit in your
19. so many years
45. coffin. My mother, after a life
20. unquestioned, unthwarted? One
46. of it, says, “This is the last straw.”
21. would have to believe oneself
47. And it is. We’re all clutching.
22. entirely good or worthy. I
23. suppose in time either
24. one becomes a monster or
25. the beloved sees what one is. I never
LOUISE GLÜCK
[
Telemachus’ Fantasy
26. wish for my father’s life
27. nor have I any idea
28. what he sacrificed
29. to survive that moment. Less dangerous
1.
Sometimes I wonder about my father’s
30. to believe he was drawn to them
21
31. and so stayed
ELIZABETH BISHOP
32. to see who they were. I think, though,
[
33. as an imaginative man
34. to some extent he
35. became who they were.
One Art
1.
The art of losing isn't hard to master;
2.
so many things seem filled with the intent
3.
to be lost that their loss is no disaster.
4.
Lose something every day. Accept the fluster
5.
of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.
6.
The art of losing isn't hard to master.
7.
Then practice losing farther, losing faster:
8.
places, and names, and where it was you meant
9.
to travel. None of these will bring disaster.
10. I lost my mother's watch. And look! my last, or
11. next-to-last, of three loved houses went.
12. The art of losing isn't hard to master.
13. I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster,
14. some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent.
15. I miss them, but it wasn't a disaster.
16. --Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture
17. I love) I shan't have lied. It's evident
18. the art of losing's not too hard to master
19. though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.
22
EMILY DICKINSON
PABLO NERUDA
[
[
After a Great Pain, A Formal Feeling Comes
1.
After great pain a formal feeling comes--
2.
The nerves sit ceremonious like tombs;
3.
Tonight I Can Write (the Saddest Lines)
1.
Tonight I can write the saddest lines.
The stiff Heart questions--was it He that bore?
2.
Write, for example, 'The night is shattered
4.
And yesterday--or centuries before?
3.
and the blue stars shiver in the distance.'
5.
The feet, mechanical, go round
4.
The night wind revolves in the sky and sings.
6.
A wooden way
7.
Of ground, or air, or ought,
5.
Tonight I can write the saddest lines.
8.
Regardless grown,
6.
I loved her, and sometimes she loved me too.
9.
A quartz contentment, like a stone.
7.
Through nights like this one I held her in my arms
8.
I kissed her again and again under the endless sky.
12. As freezing persons recollect the snow--
9.
She loved me sometimes, and I loved her too.
13. First chill, then stupor, then the letting go.
10. How could one not have loved her great still eyes.
10. This is the hour of lead
11. Remembered if outlived,
11. Tonight I can write the saddest lines.
12. To think that I do not have her. To feel that I have lost her.
13. To hear the immense night, still more immense without her.
14. And the verse falls to the soul like dew to the pasture.
15. What does it matter that my love could not keep her.
16. The night is shattered and she is not with me.
23
17. This is all. In the distance someone is singing. In the distance.
18. My soul is not satisfied that it has lost her.
19. My sight searches for her as though to go to her.
20. My heart looks for her, and she is not with me.
21. The same night whitening the same trees.
22. We, of that time, are no longer the same.
23. I no longer love her, that's certain, but how I loved her.
24. My voice tried to find the wind to touch her hearing.
25. Another's. She will be another's. Like my kisses before.
26. Her voice. Her bright body. Her infinite eyes.
27. I no longer love her, that's certain, but maybe I love her.
28. Love is so short, forgetting is so long.
29. Because through nights like this one I held her in my arms
30. my soul is not satisfied that it has lost her.
31. Though this be the last pain that she makes me suffer
32. and these the last verses that I write for her.
LUISA IGLORIA
[
Filipino American Barbie
1.
Dear sister in the islands, it's the middle of March
2.
but there's a snowstorm watch in Chicago. I need
3.
to get away, to lie in the tropical sun, sign up
4.
for one of those tours that promise you a blinding
5.
"recovery of cultural roots". Here, I can never
6.
go anywhere and when we do it's always to church,
7.
to the mall or to parties, and there's always chaperones
8.
and a curfew. I'm tired of winter's chocolate-and-angel-
9.
white fashions, tired of being mistaken for Pocahontas
10. without the fringe. My owner's parents bought me
11. because they thought I would help her identify
12. more closely with a model. They looked and looked
13. inside my box and seemed disappointed
14. when they couldn't find a manual or free cassette
15. on Tagalog Made Easy, but quickly appreciated
16. the fact that among my accessories-- including
17. a Gold Card, magenta fan and singkil princess'
18. costume, a beauty queen's sash and rhinestone
19. tiara-- was a birth certificate proclaiming me
20. third generation, American born, all parts
21. assembled in the USA. "See," they said,
22. "she isn't one of those who'd chase after Ken
23. or some other chap in a G.I. uniform
24. because she needs a green card. Look at that
25. and count your blessings". My owner
24
26. doesn't always think kindly of me-- all of this
55. caught in a bind. She wants him to listen
27. is never spoken, though I can read it easily.
56. to what she's not saying aloud, she wants
28. After all, I'm supposed to have a Filipino core--
57. him to train every cell in his body to the messages
29. perhaps something encased in my plastic rubber
58. she unconsciously sends with her eyes, the unspoken
30. ribcage? Anyway, when she's in a bad mood she pulls
59. language of her need. She flings herself upon me
31. at my face and hisses at me to point with my lips.
60. on the bed. It crosses my mind that following
32. She tells her parents I smell like fish, no matter
61. the American way, this is a time she needs
33. how many times she washes my dark, waist-length
34. hair in lemon-scented dishwashing detergent.
MERLIE M. ALUNAN
35. I can understand her frustrations. Like her,
[
36. my English is without accent, but sometimes
37. I think both of us could use a short aggressiveness
38. training course. It must be the rule of obedience-39. you never raise your voice to someone older,
40. someone male; you never question authority.
41. Her parents and grandparents won't let her, but
42. she wants to join the navy and see the world.
43. She wants to put on a 'chute and fall nearly
44. weightless through a brilliant sky, to skim
45. down the sights of a rifle and hit a target
46. from a hundred yards away. She wants
47. to dye her hair purple or wear it in dread48. locks. She wonders what it's like to kiss
49. a woman, what it's like to have a white
50. boy come inside her. She wants to invent
51. herself and escape the sticky coils of chismis. [- gossip]
52. My heart goes out to her, especially when
53. she comes in from a fight with her boyfriend.
54. Despite her share of forthrightness, she's still
Bringing the Dolls
1.
Two dolls in rags and tatters,
2.
one missing an arm and a leg,
3.
the other blind in one eye—
4.
I grabbed them from her arms,
5.
“No,” I said, “they cannot come.”
6.
Each tight luggage
7.
I had packed
8.
only for the barest need:
9.
No room for sentiment or memory
10. to clutter loose ends
11. my stern resolve.
12. I reasoned, even a child
13. must learn she can’t take
14. what must be left behind.
15. And so the boat turned seaward,
16. a smart wind blowing dry
17. the stealthy tears I could not wipe.
25
18. Then I saw—rags, tatters and all—
MARGE PIERCY
19. there among the neat trim packs,
[
20. the dolls I ruled to leave behind.
Barbie Doll
1.
This girlchild was born as usual
2.
and presented dolls that did pee-pee
3.
and miniature GE stoves and irons
4.
and wee lipsticks the color of cherry candy.
5.
Then in the magic of puberty, a classmate said:
6.
You have a great big nose and fat legs.
7.
She was healthy, tested intelligent,
8.
possessed strong arms and back,
9.
abundant sexual drive and manual dexterity.
10. She went to and fro apologizing.
11. Everyone saw a fat nose on thick legs.
12. She was advised to play coy,
13. exhorted to come on hearty,
14. exercise, diet, smile and wheedle.
15. Her good nature wore out
16. like a fan belt.
17. So she cut off her nose and her legs
18. and offered them up.
19. In the casket displayed on satin she lay
20. with the undertaker's cosmetics painted on,
21. a turned-up putty nose,
22. dressed in a pink and white nightie.
26
23. Doesn't she look pretty? everyone said.
15. You are wandering; you feel a kiss on your lips
24. Consummation at last.
16. Which quivers there like something small and alive...
25. To every woman a happy ending.
III
ARTHUR RIMBAUD
[
17. Your mad heart goes Crusoeing through all the romances,
Romance
18. When, under the light of a pale street lamp,
I
1.
When you are seventeen you aren't really serious.
2.
One fine evening, you've had enough of beer and lemonade,
3.
And the rowdy cafes with their dazzling lights!
4.
You go walking beneath the green lime trees of the promenade.
5.
The lime trees smell good on fine evenings in June!
6.
The air is so soft sometimes, you close your eyelids;
7.
The wind, full of sounds, - the town's not far away -
8.
Carries odours of vines, and odours of beer...
II
9.
Then you see a very tiny rag
10. Of dark blue, framed by a small branch,
11. Pierced by an unlucky star which is melting away
12. With soft little shivers, small, perfectly white...
13. June night! Seventeen! - You let yourself get drunk.
14. The sap is champagne and goes straight to your head...
19. Passes a young girl with charming little airs,
20. In the shadow of her father's terrifying stiff collar...
21. And because you strike her as absurdly naif,
22. As she trots along in her little ankle boots,
23. She turns, wide awake, with a brisk movement...
24. And then cavatinas die on your lips...
IV
25. You're in love. Taken until the month of August.
26. You're in love - Your sonnets make Her laugh.
27. All your friends disappear, you are not quite the thing.
28. Then your adored one, one evening, condescends to write to
you...!
29. That evening,... - you go back again to the dazzling cafes,
30. You ask for beer or for lemonade...
31. You are not really serious when you are seventeen
32. And there are green lime trees on the promenade...
27
JANICE IAN
23. Remember those who win the game
[
24. Lose the love they sought to gain
At Seventeen
1.
I learned the truth at seventeen
2.
That love was meant for beauty queens
3.
And high school girls with clear skinned smiles
4.
Who married young and then retired
5.
The valentines I never knew
6.
The Friday night charades of youth
7.
Were spent on one more beautiful
8.
At seventeen I learned the truth
9.
And those of us with ravaged faces
10. Lacking in the social graces
11. Desperately remained at home
12. Inventing lovers on the phone
13. Who called to say, "come dance with me"
14. And murmur vague obscenities
15. It isn't all it seems at seventeen
16. A brown eyed girl in hand-me-downs
17. Whose name I never could pronounce said
18. Pity, please, the ones who serve
19. They only get what they deserve
20. The rich-relationed home-town queen
21. Marries into what she needs
22. With a guarantee of company and haven for the elderly
25. In debentures of quality
26. And dubious integrity
27. Their small town eyes will gape at you in
28. Dull surprise when payment due
29. Exceeds accounts received at seventeen
30. To those of us who knew the pain
31. Of valentines that never came
32. And those whose names were never called
33. When choosing sides for basketball
34. It was long ago and far away
35. The world was younger than today
36. And dreams were all they gave for free
37. To ugly duckling girls like me
38. We all play the game and when we dare
39. To cheat ourselves at solitaire
40. Inventing lovers on the phone
41. Repenting other lives unknown
42. That call and say, "come dance with me"
43. And murmur vague obscenities
44. At ugly girls like me, at seventeen
28
JIM STEINMAN
[
Paradise by the Dashboard Light
I. PARADISE
Boy:
1.
I remember every little thing
2.
As if it happened only yesterday
3.
Parking by the lake
4.
And there was not another car in sight
5.
And I never had a girl
6.
Looking any better than you did
7.
And all the kids at school
8.
They were wishing they were me that night
9.
And now our bodies are oh so close and tight
10. It never felt so good, it never felt so right
11. And we're glowing like the metal on the edge of a knife
12. C'mon! Hold on tight! C'mon! Hold on tight!
13. Though it's cold and lonely in the deep dark night
14. I can see paradise by the dashboard light
Girl:
15. Ain't no doubt about it
16. We were doubly blessed
17. Cause we were barely seventeen
18. And we were barely dressed
19. Ain't no doubt about it
20. Baby got to go and shout it
21. Ain't no doubt about it
22. We were doubly blessed
Boy:
23. Cause we were barely seventeen
24. And we were barely dressed
25. Baby doncha hear my heart
26. You got it drowning out the radio
27. I've been waiting so long
28. For you to come along and have some fun
29. And I gotta let ya know
30. No you're never gonna regret it
31. So open up your eyes I got a big surprise
32. It'll feel all right
33. Well I wanna make your motor run
34. And now our bodies are oh so close and tight
35. It never felt so good, it never felt so right
36. And we're glowing like the metal on the edge of a knife
37. C'mon! Hold on tight! C'mon! Hold on tight!
38. Though it's cold and lonely in the deep dark night
39. I can see paradise by the dashboard light
40. Paradise by the dashboard light
29
41. You got to do what you can
66. He's taking a pretty big lead out there, almost
67. daring him to try and pick him off. The pitcher
42. And let Mother Nature do the rest
68. glance over, winds up, and it's bunted, bunted
43. Ain't no doubt about it
69. down the third base line, the suicide squeeze in on!
44. We were doubly blessed
70. Here he comes, squeeze play, it's gonna be close,
45. Cause we were barely seventeen
71. here's the throw, there's the play at the plate,
46. And we were barely—
72. holy cow, I think he's gonna make it!
47. We're gonna go all the way tonight
II. LET ME SLEEP ON IT
48. We're gonna go all the way
49. An tonight's the night...
Girl:
73. Stop right there!
Radio Broadcast:
74. I gotta know right now!
50. Ok, here we go, we got a real pressure cooker
75. Before we go any further--!
51. going here, two down, nobody on, no score,
52. bottom of the ninth, there's the wind-up and
76. Do you love me?
53. there it is, a line shot up the middle, look
77. Will you love me forever?
54. at him go. This boy can really fly!
78. Do you need me?
55. He's rounding first and really turning it on
79. Will you never leave me?
56. now, he's not letting up at all, he's gonna
80. Will you make me so happy for the rest of my life?
57. try for second; the ball is bobbled out in center,
81. Will you take me away and will you make me your wife?
58. and here comes the throw, and what a throw!
59. He's gonna slide in head first, here he comes, he's out!
82. I gotta know right now
60. No, wait, safe--safe at second base, this kid really
83. Before we go any further
61. makes things happen out there.
84. Do you love me!!!?
62. Batter steps up to the plate, here's the pitch--
85. Will you love me forever!!!?
63. he's going, and what a jump he's got, he's trying
64. for third, here's the throw, it's in the dirt--
Boy:
65. safe at third! Holy cow, stolen base!
86. Let me sleep on it
30
87. Baby, baby let me sleep on it
88. Let me sleep on it
89. And I'll give you my answer in the morning
Girl:
108. Will you love me forever!!!
Girl:
III. PRAYING FOR THE END OF TIME
90. I gotta know right now!
91. Do you love me?
Boy:
92. Will you love me forever?
109. I couldn't take it any longer
93. Do you need me?
110. Lord I was crazed
94. Will you never leave me?
111. And when the feeling came upon me
95. Will you make me so happy for the rest of my life?
112. Like a tidal wave
96. Will you take me away and will you make me your wife?
113. I started swearing to my god and on my mother's grave
97. I gotta know right now!
114. That I would love you to the end of time
98. Before we go any further
115. I swore that I would love you to the end of time!
99. Do you love me?
100. And will you love me forever?
116. So now I'm praying for the end of time
117. To hurry up and arrive
Boy:
118. Cause if I gotta spend another minute with you
101. Let me sleep on it
119. I don't think that I can really survive
102. Baby, baby let me sleep on it
120. I'll never break my promise or forget my vow
103. Let me sleep on it
121. But God only knows what I can do right now
104. And I'll give you my answer in the morning
122. I'm praying for the end of time
105. Let me sleep on it!!!
123. It's all that I can do
124. Praying for the end of time, so I can end my time with you!!!
Girl:
106. Will you love me forever?
Boy:
125. It was long ago and it was far away
Boy:
107. Let me sleep on it!!!
126. and it was so much better than it is today
31
Girl:
127. It never felt so good
MERLIE M. ALUNAN
[
128. It never felt so right
129. And we were glowing like
130. A metal on the edge of a knife
Young Man in a Jeepney
1.
Trapped in a conspiracy
2.
of chance we sit close inside
3.
this sardine can on wheels
4.
horning the gas-fume streets
5.
of this dust-tired afternoon.
6.
How your shoulders strain
7.
your shirt. A stray wind
8.
cools your sweat on my skin.
9.
“Heat,” I mutter. “It melts
10. the very bones,” feeling
11. as I say this, inside me
12. awakening sweet April,
13. fragrant May unfolding
14. flowerfingers on their laps.
15. If they dare they may
16. pass their cool palms
17. on your moist brow. My own hands,
18. competent and more mundane
19. clutch my banal burdens
20. close to my chest.
32
21. “I declare,” another woman
L. LACAMBRA YPIL
22. nods back, grimacing our shared
[
23. and transient woe, “This heat
24. does dry us all.”
25. Do you hear her?
26. On our faces ravished with age
27. and hope unredeemed, do you see
28. the rouge cracking
29. like mortar on a weather wall?
30. At the stop you get off-31. anchovy bodies shake loose,
32. come inevitably untrapped
33. in space you emptied.
34. In your wake your warmth
35. stuck frail above the dust,
36. the iron smell of gas fumes.
37. I do not watch you turn
38. the corner to the sudden dusk
39. --but I smile to savor
40. my sin in secret.
Bad Driver, Good Lover
1.
Because he’s just too hot
2.
for us to touch
3.
we’ll only watch
4.
him get down shirtless
5.
to it: the sputtering wire
6.
the flat tire, moored
7.
at the edge of the road, the old cat
8.
with its hood open.
9.
Aimless wind of traffic.
10. And the dust, already
11. ruining our hair. Who cares
12. now if we want to cross
13. the lane, and hit the truck
14. and got ourselves a wreck
15. of wrong and reckless
16. turns, We want to pull him
17. over now. Be perfect if
33
18. he’d bend us over,
21. cash from his wallet, or else left her some
22. such ache or rivet of fear from which something
19. too. We hope he does
23. fell suddenly and she found her life changed?
20. not know our mothers well.
24. Stolid her face remains as her hand moves
RICARDO M DE UNGRIA
25. back up to grip her blouse by the collar
[
26. like a shawl of terrible unanswered questions.
Still Life with Jeepney Window
1.
Fairer than most beer-garden-waitress make,
2.
she leans far to her right ahead of herself,
3.
her blank look casting pallor on her pale face.
4.
Her eyes, sharp as her nose and fixed at a point
5.
on the road, put her already at the jeepney
6.
terminal—thence, to whose waiting arms? To what
7.
police precinct? To which hospital or morgue?
8.
A fray of hair on her temple too short to reach
9.
the carelessly tied bun on her nape flutter
27. Behind her, street corner hangers-on leaf
28. through the day’s tabloids with unwashed faces
29. under a dull and fretful morning light.
30. Caught in the drama I’ve made up for her
31. in my mind, I could not bring myself to
32. alight at my stop when we came to it
33. and not see her urgency play itself
34. out against my sense of it—well, almost.
10. limply in slow air. Clutching her round-neck
11. blouse where her fingers had made a fold above
12. her heart, drawing it closer to her throat,
13. she appears ready to weather any
ANGELA MANALANG-GLORIA
[
Revolt from Hymen
14. fall from grace or look any storm in the eye.
15. Then thoughtlessly her hand slips down to her
1.
to be free at last, to sleep at last
16. right breast just above the nipple and squeezes it,
2.
As infants sleep within the womb of rest!
3.
To stir and stirring find no blackness vast
4.
With passion weighted down upon the breast,
5.
To turn the face this way and that and feel
17. twice—to soothe the flesh of its tightening
18. knot of milk? Or its wet heat of a bruise?
19. Or to recall the hand of one who touched
20. her tenderly there before fishing out
34
6.
No kiss festering on it like sores,
7.
To be alone at last, broken the seal
8.
That marks the flesh no better than a whore’s!
WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS
[
Landscape With The Fall of Icarus
1.
According to Brueghel
2.
when Icarus fell
3.
it was spring
4.
a farmer was ploughing
5.
his field
6.
the whole pageantry
7.
of the year was
8.
awake tingling
9.
near
10. the edge of the sea
11. concerned
12. with itself
13. sweating in the sun
14. that melted
15. the wings' wax
16. unsignificantly
17. off the coast
18. there was
19. a splash quite unnoticed
35
20. this was
W.H. AUDEN
21. Icarus drowning
[
Musée des Beaux Arts
1.
About suffering they were never wrong,
2.
The Old Masters; how well, they understood
3.
Its human position; how it takes place
4.
While someone else is eating or opening a window or just
walking dully along;
5.
How, when the aged are reverently, passionately waiting
6.
For the miraculous birth, there always must be
7.
Children who did not specially want it to happen, skating
8.
On a pond at the edge of the wood:
9.
They never forgot
10. That even the dreadful martyrdom must run its course
11. Anyhow in a corner, some untidy spot
12. Where the dogs go on with their doggy life and the torturer's
horse
13. Scratches its innocent behind on a tree.
14. In Breughel's Icarus, for instance: how everything turns away
15. Quite leisurely from the disaster; the ploughman may
16. Have heard the splash, the forsaken cry,
17. But for him it was not an important failure; the sun shone
18. As it had to on the white legs disappearing into the green
19. Water; and the expensive delicate ship that must have seen
20. Something amazing, a boy falling out of the sky,
21. had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on.
36
JULES LAFORGUE
21. For I’m the Grand Chancellor of the Analysis—
[
22. Remember this.
Sundays
1.
It’s autumn, autumn, autumn,
2.
The great wind and all its string
3.
Of reprisals! And music! …
4.
Drawn curtains, closed for the season,
5.
Leaves, Antigones, Philomelas, falling;
6.
My gravedigger, “Alas poor Yorick!”
7.
Stirring them, shoveling … !
8.
Long live Love, straw fires!
9.
Inviolable and frail, the Young Ladies
10. Go down toward the chapel
11. Whose chimerical bells
12. Of cheerful, cheerful Sunday
13. Call them, hygienically, elegantly.
14. Close to them it all becomes so clean!
15. And all so Sunday!
16. How hard we grow, and sulky, when they near! …
17. Ah! I’m still the Polar Bear!
18. I came here via the ice-floes
19. Purer than white Communion robes;
20. And never go to church.
23. But just the same! Why be so anemic?
24. Come tell your troubles to an old friend …
25. Truly! Truly!
26. Ah! I turn to the seam the elements,
27. And all that has nothing left but grumbling laments!
28. Oh it’s so holy!
29. And needing such lengthy care!
30. Poor, poor, camouflaged by charm! …
31. And we, and we
32. Drunk, drunk before marveling …
33. Marveling, and on our knees! …
34. And see how we tremble so
35. At this first great evening
36. That we would, despairing,
37. Die of it all, together!
38. O marvel they could only conceal!
39. So poor and so burning, martyrdom!
40. And that they dare not touch
41. Save blindly in a divine delirium!
37
42. O marvel.
65. Ah, couldn’t we leave this life,
43. Stay hidden, ideal violet.
66. Together right after this High Mass,
44. The Universe doesn’t forget,
67. Sick of our species
45. The generations of planets suckle you
68. Which yawns, replete
46. From funerals to christenings! …
69. Back on the street! …
47. Oh! so high
48. Beyond this God and Thought!
49. And all only by those dear eyes on high,
50. Quite unknowing and the color of thought!
51. So frail, so frail!
52. And all our mortal home
53. In her, all this home!
54. Oh, forgive her id, in spite of herself,
55. And it’s really so becoming,
56. Sometimes her eyelashes wink a little
57. Asking a little
58. Be softened a little!
59. O frail, frail, and always ready
60. For Masses they’ve made a game,
61. Bow, bow your dear head, go,
62. Look at the grapes the lilacs grow,
63. Conquest is not my aim—
64. Beyond! You know…