Poem On Your Blog Day
I found out about Poem on Your Blog Day via this Metafilter thread, one of whose contributors has made me very happy by posting Frank O’Hara’s "Having a Coke with You." I find it all but impossible to pick just one poem, but for some reason I thought of this one:
But I Can’t
Time will say nothing but I told you so,
Time only knows the price we have to pay;
If I could tell you I would let you know.If we should weep when clowns put on their show,
If we should stumble when musicians play,
Time will say nothing but I told you so.There are no fortunes to be told, although,
Because I love you more than I can say,
If I could tell you I would let you know.The winds must come from somewhere when they blow,
There must be reasons why the leaves decay;
Time will say nothing but I told you so.Perhaps the roses really want to grow,
The vision seriously intends to stay;
If I could tell you I would let you know.Suppose the lions all get up and go,
And all the brooks and soldiers run away?
Will time say nothing but I told you so?
If I could tell you I would let you know.
See also this article from the UK Guardian on Auden and song.
(Elsewhere, Dorothea posts the entirety of A. D. Godley’s wonderful macaronic poem "Motor Bus," the first four lines of which got lodged in my head, inconveniently without any recollection of who wrote them, after I saw them quoted in some book or other I read years ago. And this is also happy-making.)
Beautiful.