If I when my wife is sleeping
and the baby and Kathleen
are sleeping
and the sun is a flame-white disc
in silken mists
above shining trees,—
if I in my north room
dance naked, grotesquely
before my mirror
waving my shirt round my head
and singing softly to myself:
"I am lonely, lonely.
I was born to be lonely,
I am best so!"
If I admire my arms, my face,
my shoulders, flanks, buttocks
against the yellow drawn shades,—
Who shall say I am not
the happy genius of my household?
-- William Carlos Williams
and the baby and Kathleen
are sleeping
and the sun is a flame-white disc
in silken mists
above shining trees,—
if I in my north room
dance naked, grotesquely
before my mirror
waving my shirt round my head
and singing softly to myself:
"I am lonely, lonely.
I was born to be lonely,
I am best so!"
If I admire my arms, my face,
my shoulders, flanks, buttocks
against the yellow drawn shades,—
Who shall say I am not
the happy genius of my household?
-- William Carlos Williams
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5 comments:
+JMJ+
Well, at least someone can see the glass as half-full!
"It's not loneliness! It's happy genius!"
Yes. I like it. Thank you.
This poem always shocks me a little, and I love it.
I like it alot, as a matter of fact.
The part in quotation marks passes through my mind at least once every few days.
However, I want to state for the record that I have never danced naked before a mirror [shudder] (or anywhere else, for that matter).
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