Monday, September 19, 2011

pay my respects to grace and virtue, send my condolences to good

because writing anything seems like the hardest thing in the world to do these days, here's a poem that i read a few days ago in an anthology i recently bought. i liked it. maybe you will too.

The Poet Has Come Back
by Margaret Arwood

The poet has come back to being a poet
after decades of being virtuous instead.

Can't you be both?
No. Not in public.

You could, once,
back when God was still thundering vengeance

and liked the scent of blood,
and hadn't got around to slippery forgiveness.

Then you could scatter incense and praise,
and wear your snake necklace,

and hymn the crushed skulls of your enemies
to a pious chorus.

No deferential smiling, no baking of cookies,

no I'm a nice person really.

Welcome back, my dear.
Time to resume our vigil,

time to unlock the cellar door,
time to remind ourselves

that the god of poets has two hands:
the dextrous, the sinister.

*Human - The Killers

2 comments:

  1. I often ponder the reason for departure and return mentioned in this. I've never been able to put it quote so eloquently or sensically, though.

    I don't care if "sensically" isn't a word. You know what I mean by it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. i know exactly what you mean and feel the same way.

    ReplyDelete