Posts tagged poetry

This Be The Verse

They fuck you up, your mum and dad.

  They may not mean to, but they do.

They fill you with the faults they had

  And add some extra, just for you.

But they were fucked up in their turn

  By fools in old-style hats and coats,

Who half the time were soppy-stern

  And half at one another’s throats.

Man hands on misery to man.

  It deepens like a coastal shelf.

Get out as early as you can,

  And don’t have any kids yourself.

Philip Larkin

(Sent to me by my dad, so he can’t be so bad.)

Good grief.

Undressing

Learn the alchemy true human beings
know:  the moment you accept what
trouble you’ve been given, the door
will open.  Welcome difficulty
as a familiar comrade.  Joke with
torment brought by the Friend.

Sorrows are the rags of old clothes
and jackets that serve to cover,
then are taken off.  That undressing,
and the naked body underneath, is
the sweetness that comes from grief.

Rumi