Tuesday, February 13, 2007

What They Said

I think this picture and poem go together nicely. Can you guess who wrote the poem? A special prize to the first who can (no googling, though I am not sure it will help).



What They Said

: After I am dead, darling,
my seventeen senses gone,
I shall love you as you wish,
no sex, no mouth, but bone —
in the way you long for now,
with my soul alone.

: When we are neither woman nor man
but bleached to skeleton —
when you have changed, my darling,
and all your senses gone,
it is not me that you will love:
you will love everyone.


*

9 comments:

Unknown said...

I'd take a wild guess, but I'm afraid you'll all laugh if I'm wrong.

A. J. Patrick Liszkiewicz said...

Was it me? Did I write it?

Peter said...

DKM: no one would laugh. We all buddies here.
AJ: No, not you. Unless possibly you in a previous life. (hint hint)

Unknown said...

Stevie Smith?

C. Dale said...

Easy as cake. It is by Muriel Rukeyser.

Peter said...

Yes C Dale is correct.
Stevie Smith was a great guess though DKM. And, funny enough, I was reading the two of them (Stevie and Muriel) together today.

Peter said...

PS: C Dale. Your prize: I'll buy you a drink at AWP. Cheers!

Esther Altshul Helfgott said...

...and even before that
when one of the two has Alzheimer’s, say, his senses
some gone and hers still intact,
their souls touch in a love seat, say, in a nursing home, even...

Anonymous said...

Rukeyser may have been prompted by Christina Rossetti's "Song" ("When I am dead, my dearest")