AUDENESQUE
As I walked out one morning,
walking down Auden Street,
No crowds upon the pavement,
No sound of people’s feet.
The nightmare it had happened
And Time had run away.
Blake’s rose it had sickened,
No tomorrow...now...no today.
Jack had been eaten by the giant.
The fairy tale had turned Grimm.
History? A tale told by an idiot...
Good God? Nobody believed in him!
I looked, looked in the mirror
And nothing of me could I see?
Desert and Glacier laughed in my face
mocking: “To be. . .not to be!”
It was late, late in the evening,
The world we had known was gone.
And I the only ghost left living
To ponder how it all went wrong.
**
Riffing off of Auden's wonderful ballad...
As I Walked Out One Evening
W. H. Auden - 1907-1973
As I walked out one evening,
Walking down Bristol Street,
The crowds upon the pavement
Were fields of harvest wheat.
And down by the brimming river
I heard a lover sing
Under an arch of the railway:
'Love has no ending.
'I'll love you, dear, I'll love you
Till China and Africa meet,
And the river jumps over the mountain
And the salmon sing in the street,
'I'll love you till the ocean
Is folded and hung up to dry
And the seven stars go squawking
Like geese about the sky.
'The years shall run like rabbits,
For in my arms I hold
The Flower of the Ages,
And the first love of the world.'
But all the clocks in the city
Began to whirr and chime:
'O let not Time deceive you,
You cannot conquer Time.
'In the burrows of the Nightmare
Where Justice naked is,
Time watches from the shadow
And coughs when you would kiss.
'In headaches and in worry
Vaguely life leaks away,
And Time will have his fancy
To-morrow or to-day.
'Into many a green valley
Drifts the appalling snow;
Time breaks the threaded dances
And the diver's brilliant bow.
'O plunge your hands in water,
Plunge them in up to the wrist;
Stare, stare in the basin
And wonder what you've missed.
'The glacier knocks in the cupboard,
The desert sighs in the bed,
And the crack in the tea-cup opens
A lane to the land of the dead.
'Where the beggars raffle the banknotes
And the Giant is enchanting to Jack,
And the Lily-white Boy is a Roarer,
And Jill goes down on her back.
'O look, look in the mirror,
O look in your distress:
Life remains a blessing
Although you cannot bless.
'O stand, stand at the window
As the tears scald and start;
You shall love your crooked neighbour
With your crooked heart.'
It was late, late in the evening,
The lovers they were gone;
The clocks had ceased their chiming,
And the deep river ran on.
**
We were doing a poetry class with a famous poet and were supposed to write lyrics but he changed it to ballads. We were given 10 minutes to do one. When I read this he asked did you really write this right now and I said of course. He said it was no good so I slunk away under a stone. When we had a face to face meeting he told that it was very good and he had only been pulling my leg. You live and learn I guess.