Auden's Truth and Other Poems

'Tis the season (for me) to write poem after poem as I approach, then stealthily pass, my birthday, which this year falls on a Saturday. Once again I will claim that I will be working on my novel and, so as not to keep you in suspense, I will not work on it. (Though maybe THIS time, I'll make a liar out of myself and finish Chapter 17!) <---Is this delusion, dreaming, or just optimism? Oh well, life's too short to worry about that. Enjoy the poems.


Auden's Truth

Even poets lie
When faced with
Such harsh reality
As war or human frailty

Suffering acceptance
From the masses
For a line without proof
You failed to see the Truth

“We must love each other”
You wrote, but thought
The conjunction was the lie
“Or we must die”

Were you such a Realist
You couldn’t invoke
Your own license
To make a difference

To concede that for
Some - though not for poets,
Of course - Life without love
is death (or the semblance of)

ltv



delaying the inevitable

like God’s disappearance
when Science emerged
the question from your child
at the beginning of December
of her eighth year
packing up the paraphernalia
not to hide the evidence
rehearsing a question
you know she’ll answer “yes” to
quarter past eight
on Monday morning
writing poetry to pretend
the weekend isn’t over yet

ltv

  

[unnamed]

what Scientists and Spiritualists
fail to understand is
that God didn’t succumb
to Scientific Theory
we’re just getting
to know Him by
His proper identity
rather than this
hologram of blind faith
each moment we see
the pathway to cure disease
each planet we discover
shows us more of
the Universe – whom we
have erroneously named “God”

ltv