To begin ...

As the twentieth century fades out
the nineteenth begins
.......................................again
it is as if nothing happened
though those who lived it thought
that everything was happening
enough to name a world for & a time
to hold it in your hand
unlimited.......the last delusion
like the perfect mask of death

Saturday, September 20, 2008

Uncollected Poems (4): On a Line by Valéry


for Paul Blackburn

Caesar did it too
– into the snow
at night –
& Stalin
by a wall behind
the Kremlin.
Gandhi too
& Shakespeare,
pissing in a line
like sleepers.
This is the prophecy
of Valéry
& Blackburn:
we are little men.

22.iii.85

[This poem was recovered, along with numerous others, for a volume of Uncollected Poems to be published by Mark Weiss and Junction Press.]

3 comments:

zendo said...

i don't know wat any of this means, but i like it.

Lute said...

Mostly its about being part of it, that long line...

its enough to feel it, if only for the moment that existence allows.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for sharing...
___________________
Julie
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