SWEETNESS
Just when it has seemed I couldn’t bear
one more friend
waking with a tumor, one more maniac
I acknowledge there is no sweetness
that doesn’t leave a stain,
no sweetness that’s ever sufficiently sweet ....
Tonight a friend called to say his lover
was killed in a car
he was driving. His voice was low
to make sense of what it means to be alive,
then returns to its dark
source. As for me, I don’t care
where it’s been,
or what bitter road
it’s traveled
to come so far, to taste so good.
Stephen Dunn
Just when it has seemed I couldn’t bear
one more friend
waking with a tumor, one more maniac
with a perfect reason, often a sweetness
has come
and changed nothing in the world
has come
and changed nothing in the world
someone or something,
the world shrunk
to mouth-size,
hand-size,
and never seeming small.
the world shrunk
to mouth-size,
hand-size,
and never seeming small.
I acknowledge there is no sweetness
that doesn’t leave a stain,
no sweetness that’s ever sufficiently sweet ....
Tonight a friend called to say his lover
was killed in a car
he was driving. His voice was low
and guttural, he repeated what he needed
to repeat, and I repeated
the one or two words we have for such grief
until we were speaking only in tones.
Often a sweetness comes
as if on loan, stays just long enough
to repeat, and I repeated
the one or two words we have for such grief
until we were speaking only in tones.
Often a sweetness comes
as if on loan, stays just long enough
to make sense of what it means to be alive,
then returns to its dark
source. As for me, I don’t care
where it’s been,
or what bitter road
it’s traveled
to come so far, to taste so good.
Stephen Dunn
cool. A Toorop I'd never seen before :) Coming here, there's almost always a treat.
ReplyDeletehe's wonderful
ReplyDeleteI do not know English well but I think truly a unique poetry and I like the pictures the accompanying...
ReplyDeleteA very nice atmosphere ...
Thanks!
i really appreciate your saying so, amatamari
ReplyDelete