Friday, June 6, 2008

A little WCW


I just started reading William Carlos Williams Selected Poems, a 1969 edition my wife picked up for me at a used book store. The first poem in the book, "January Morning," doesn't really do much for me until the end. The end is quite awesome and really sums up what it feels like to be a poet at times. Note that there are some indented lines and such that are lost here.
I wanted to write a poem
that you would understand.
for what good is it to me
if you can't understand it?
But you got to try hard--
But--
Well, you know how
the young girls run giggling
on Park Avenue after dark
when they ought to be home in bed?
Well,
that's the way it is with me somehow.

(William Carlos Williams, "January Morning" part XV, lines 3-14 from William Carlos Williams Selected Poems, 1969 New Directions Press)

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