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DEATH SATISFIES NONE
Death satisfies none; there will beNo intriguing dreams, lovely dreams,As when life gives us sleep;Life, so full of life, oblivionIn life has life; life never seemsTo not be life: death satisfies...
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WHEN THE PLAY ENDS
When the play ends, everybody dies;We forget the play’s mysteriesAnd find in the lobby a low hum.Those whom the play managed to please,Whom we might call happy, death defies.Those who couldn’t wait...
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FAILING TO PRIORITIZE, WE LET THEM GET AWAY WITH MURDER
When it comes to things we personally cannot fix, we are easily distracted.The policies which led to murder by the elected official were forgottenWhen the sex scandal began to be covered with zest....
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IT COULDN’T HAVE BEEN YOU
It couldn’t have been you.Darling, we do what our parents do.Your mother was crazy and your father was untrue.I wasn’t going to marry you.Your mother was crazy and your father was untrue.We can kiss...
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EVIDENCE IT MATTERED
We drank and got high and read Nabokov together, listened to jazzAnd cheated on each other. In the 90s we did everything for a laugh.Intellectualism was its own ticket to the naked show. Bill...
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LOVE IS WHEN TWO ARE WRONG
Love doesn’t help anyone, or cure anyone, it’s not whenSomeone who is happy lifts up someone who is sad.I was nice. She had been a libertine—that’s why she was always mad:I would make an innocent...
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WHEN I SPOKE AT LENGTH ON LOVE
When I spoke at length on love,There was no one waiting outside the hall to love me.Love should be whispered, not lectured onWas one theme, and the theme of poetryWas very strong.I talked on and on....
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BEAUTY CANNOT SPEAK
Beauty cannot speak, but if she could,She would say first, Do not harm me,And then, Do my bidding. These two thingsWhich beauty asks, whetherIn statue, or poetry, or song,Are fair—or do we think ‘Do...
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SMILE
Spring mud and summer fatigue.Autumn darkness. The seasons are in leagueAgainst me. Winter’s Christmas breakIs now plastic toys for kids and other things which are fake.Arctic blasts. What’s global is...
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THIS POEM CAN ONLY SPEAK FOR THIS POEM
“Emily tries, but misunderstands” –Syd Barrett Let’s forget about warAnd the opposition to war—Which has ruined many a poem.Violence is like a tideWhich comes and goes.Poetry isn’t the whole sea.It...
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NOW THOSE THINGS
Now those thingsExperienced by everyone belong to you—A senator tells a joke,A professional sings,Little things—smells, sounds,Which everyone notices,Are, to your annoyance, yours again,As your life,...
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TO RETURN FROM THE DEAD
To return from the dead and smile at the one who tried to kill you—Is there a greater fantasy?Is there a greater feeling in the world?And doesn’t this happen a lot in love? Yes, it happened to me.It...
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THE HAPPY MARRIAGE
Be hopeful. She does not needTo love you completely.But she will, as long as youDon’t love her completely.It’s difficult to explain.She needs more shelterAnd you have to be some of the rain.You give...
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IT’S A LONG WAY FROM THE POEM TO SOMEWHERE ELSE
Poets use all kinds of tricksTo make you thinkYou are in the poet’s living roomOr where they work. Start with ink—Shakespeare’s “unless this miracle have mightThat in black ink my love may still shine...
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EVERY POEM IS A FAILURE
Rain will rain.Your poem depicts suffering in vain.Nor is anyone goodBecause your poem tells them to be good.And you always knew:It’s impossible for a poem to be new.Every poem is a failure—You can’t...
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AFTER I KILLED HIM I TRIED TO LOVE HIM
I entered the cemetery alone, and quietly,In the spring—I was surprised by fragrant rows of shrubbery.I could do this thing.His grave was lying there at its ease.As I stepped up to it, I felt...
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AFTER A CENTURY OF BAD THOUGHT
After a century of bad thoughtI thought something should be done.I took a no. 2 pencilAnd wrote a series of edicts(I looked up the word edict first).I had free timeBecause many resent meAs...
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THE TROUBLE WITH SUCCESSION
German idealism spread.Soon, realism was dead.England fought back, however.The Queen nearly lived forever.The father is not the fatherBecause the father is still the son.Alexander used this logicAnd...
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LIFE IS ROTTEN
Constantly confronted by themselvesThey have little to do with you.An inner pack of reportersCriminalize appearance and everything they do.The final judge is trained by their parents,No matter if...
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THE SUNNY IN THE MELANCHOLY
I found the melancholy in the sunny.I held her on a sunny plain.Mathematics taught meThe irony of pain.I traveled away from winterAnd found light and folly.Forgetting her, embracing Molly—Her sunny...
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