SILENT SONG
Bright-eyed
&
bushy-tailed woke not Henry up.
Bright though upon his workshop shone a vise
central, moved in
while he was doing time down hospital
and growing wise.
He gave it the worst look he had left.
Alone. They all abandoned Henry-wonder! all,
when most he-under the sun.
That was all right.
He can't work well with it here, or think.
A bilocation, yellow like catastrophe.
The name of this was freedom.
Will Henry again ever be on the lookout for women
&
milk,
honour
&
love again,
have a buck or three?
He felt like shrieking but he shuddered as
(spring mist, warm, rain) an handful with quietness
vanisht
&
the thing took hold.
John Berryman
HIPPOLYTUS: POLAND, 1960
Dan Ie trouble ou je suis je ne puis rien pour
moi.-Phedre
Sometimes in front of the deceptive landscape
Someone strolls and pauses, a boy no longer,
Do I recognize the unhandsome stranger,
Once he has spoken?
He who just last year led the schools of children
On the brave new heights and along the river
With the fragile voice that is now forever
Altered and broken:
