Texts: music written to order, strona 2

Give me a first line, you who are far away.
The second line will almost write itself.
In times of pain, I open the dictionary.

Like a girl in the last row who will not say
The theoretical part of the dream was herself,
Give me a first lie, you who are far away.

A student laughs: I died once. Red is gray.
Cheat me like a quote, deceiving Elf.
In times of pain, I open the dictionary.

You who tried to carve this family in clay
Skeptical and frivolous as a filthy shelf
Give me another line, you who are far away.

It’s a small freedom on a revisionary day
As a jay imitates the human on an elm –
In times of pain, I open the dictionary.

And in ordinary happiness, I open the dictionary.
The words remain, but the guards are gone for help.
Give me a last line, you who are far away.
In times of pain, I open the dictionary.

Copyright ©: David Shapiro

(In: House Blown Apart, 1988, p. 55)

This poem is a villanelle. To learn more about the genre, see here.

for Maureen OH

"music must die

but poetry is silent joy"**

or I thought poetry must die

but music is silent joy

or architecture might die

but silence is joy without doubt

or poetry must not die

but architecture must die,

that temporary shelter!

Or architecture must not die

But poetry is doubtful joy

(in: In Memory of an Angel, 2017, p. 62)

*   FOH - Frank O'Hara

** from the poem entitled "Two Russian Exiles: an Ode" by F. O'Hara.