Friday, July 16, 2010

Moving right along from moss to grass

I would make a good badge


And now it seems to me the beautiful uncut hair of graves.

Tenderly will I use you curling grass,
It may be you transpire from the breasts of young men,
It may be if I had known them I would have loved them;
It may be you are from old people and from women, and from
offspring taken soon out of their mother's laps,
And here you are the mothers' laps.

This grass is very dark to be from the white heads of old mothers,
Darker than the colorless beards of old men,
Dark to come from under the faint red roofs of mouths.

O I perceive after all so many uttering tongues!
And I perceive they do not come from the roofs of mouths for nothing.

I wish I could translate the hints about the dead young men and women,
And the hints about old men and mothers, and the offspring taken
soon out of their laps.

What do you think has become of the young and old men?
What do you think has become of the women and children?

They are alive and well somewhere;
The smallest sprouts show there is really no death,
And if ever there was it led forward life, and does not wait at the end
to arrest it,
And ceased the moment life appeared.

All goes onward and outward. . . .and nothing collapses,
And to die is different from what any one supposed, and luckier.

12 comments:

Ramon Insertnamehere said...

Walt Whitman would make a good badge, Squib.

So would Charles Darwin.

It's something about the beards. You don't see beards like that, these days.

Except of course on that bloke you see sometimes at your local shopping centre, who smells faintly of dung and keeps shouting something about bicycles.

Melba said...

I already have a Darwin badge from squib, Ramon.

She can do anyone.

Can't remember why I got him, but I did.

Anonymous said...

Ramon, my dad's an old biker with old biker mates. Trust me, those beards are still around.

Oh, and nice poem, Squib. Sad and cheery.

Puss In Boots said...

My stepfather's not an old biker, but he does have a beard like that.

squib said...

I have an uncle with a beard like that. He is a biker and he has bats in his house

Ramon Insertnamehere said...

he has bats in his house

Is that a metaphor for something Squib?

Ramon Insertnamehere said...

And for those who doubt my amazing political skillz.

Anonymous said...

Well done, Ramon. I must admit that I was starting to doubt a bit after the leadership changeover.

Squib, I hope your uncle has newspaper down. Unless you're talking about the kind that sit in your ceiling and keep your house warm.

squib said...

Bats as in, you know, flittermice

Anonymous said...

He'd definitely want the newspaper, then. Those things make an awful mess.

Anonymous said...

Hendra might be a bit of a worry too, these days.

squib said...

I think my uncle must be immune