Saturday, January 6, 2007

A Poem for Thought...

Someone commented on my blog recently that my 2006 reading list didn't contain any poetry. I really don't much like poetry. I don't know why - maybe it's because I have two small kids and just don't have time to ponder or something. Anyway, to placate the readership, I will post one poem that I absolutely love. And, having just returned from my mother in law's funeral, it seems appropriate to ponder this one..

Funeral Blues by W.H. Auden

Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.

Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message 'He is Dead'.
Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves,
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.

He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last forever: I was wrong.

The stars are not wanted now; put out every one,
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun,
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the woods;
For nothing now can ever come to any good.

3 comments:

jay are said...

awesome

nessie said...

I share the same sentiment. Oft times it seems poetry is not meant to be read but to be discussed. Now that I have made a recent acquaintance with someone who talks poetry I am beginning to open that door. We'll see what happens. Thanks for sharing.

LK said...

LOVE Auden.

P.S. Check out The February House. Auden and assorted unlikely writers --Carson McCullers, Paul and Jane Bowles and Gypsy Rose Lee, among others -- tried communal living and writing right before WW2. It is tres amusant.