Friday, April 19, 2013

First poem I memorized

Scribbled it down in the waning light during a power outage. Repeated out loud to myself in the dark until recitation was divorced from conscious thought. Waited. Still waiting.

Love, We Must Part Now – Philip Larkin
Love, we must part now: do not let it be
Calamitious and bitter. In the past
There has been too much moonlight and self-pity.
Let us have done with it: for now at last
Never has sun more boldly placed the sky,
Never were hearts more eager to be free,
To kick down worlds, lash forests: you and I
No longer hold them; we are husks that see
The grain going forward to a different use. 
There is regret. Always there is regret.
But it is better that our lives unloose,
As two tall ships, wind-mastered, wet with light,
Break from an estuary with their courses set,
And waving part, and waving drop from sight.