Am in the mood for poetry today. ^_^ Starting to like W.H. Auden, though I haven't read much of him yet. I like Margaret Atwood's "Interlunar", too. Pity Blogger has some infernal grudge against really long blog posts.

I'm re-posting an entry from my previous blog here, because Kai wrote me this lovely, lovely poem in response to it. Here's the entry, followed by the poem, "Ephemeral".

Sunday, March 09, 2003

The roses you gave me have died.

I put one in a jar of water, another suspended over my bed to dry. I loved them so much. I thought they were absolutely beautiful. Even though you know I like orange daisies better.

Then I thought the one in the jar would live longer if I gave it some sun, so I put it out of my window for three hours. Now it's bent to one side. I almost cried. But I didn't want to cry, so the only way to stop myself was to do a sketch of it instead.

It's a beautiful sketch.

While I was doing it I realised the flower was still beautiful in its own way, however dead. The angle it's leaning towards is very nicely artistic. Then I realised that just because something was dead, it didn't mean I had lost it.

I hope you know what I'm talking about.

This sketch I named "Acceptance".


Ephemeral

In danger of speedy disappearance
We have pucked the roses from the garden
"Ere they fade," you said, ardent
In your worship of their beauty, and life's importance

You cried for your roses today
Brown twisted things, a mockery
"Of what they were and should be,"
You said, but your bitter tone does betray

A tinting of your view of life
I would show you beautiful, simple things
If their leaving did not depress you, too fleeting
Even for the words that I write

Not everything has an order
Not everything can be kept on a shelf
You grasp at them vainly and break yourself
Holding what cannot be held together

Their brevity makes them precious
I would rather be ephemeral


Thanks Kai :)