Tuesday, August 11, 2015

In a Library (For my favourite editor)




Opening Bliss Carmen at random
And seeing some silly couplets
I felt the shame of bad poetry
From a good imagination
Which is mainly the effect of
Not waiting for the silences
That worked before.

That was yesterday, in a moment's
Moment
As I already held some Greeks
And other classics in my arms
And was being asked advice
But I got the message,
It was: mutter not at being made to wait.

Today, from perhaps recollecting
Hemingway's promise that the candlelight
Was worth the wait
I took some further time,
A memory's many moments
To remember how you taught me
To spot the artist over eager
To disturb his own peace and mine
For cheap production.

I swallowed gall, of course.
And you were either brave or innocent,
Or strangely both but in the end
It seasons out to honey.

Gratitude, good lady, moves my pen;
And caution, for I will be galled again
But better pain to share between us two
Than a fool's long pleasures for all the world to view.

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