(no subject)
Feb. 16th, 2004 05:38 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
phamos...do i dare
disturb the universe?
in a minute there is time
for decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.
for i have known them all already, known them all:—
have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons,
i have measured out my life with coffee spoons;
i know the voices dying with a dying fall
beneath the music from a farther room.
so how should I presume?
and i have known the eyes already, known them all—
the eyes that fix you in a formulated phrase,
and when i am formulated, sprawling on a pin,
when i am pinned and wriggling on the wall,
then how should i begin
to spit out all the butt-ends of my days and ways?
...i am no prophet—and here’s no great matter;
i have seen the moment of my greatness flicker,
and i have seen the eternal footman hold my coat, and snicker,
and in short, i was afraid.
and would it have been worth it, after all,
after the cups, the marmalade, the tea,
among the porcelain, among some talk of you and me,
would it have been worth while,
to have bitten off the matter with a smile,
to have squeezed the universe into a ball
to roll it toward some overwhelming question,
to say: “i am lazarus, come from the dead,
come back to tell you all, i shall tell you all”—
if one, settling a pillow by her head,
should say: “that is not what i meant at all.
that is not it, at all.”
...i grow old … i grow old …
i shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.
shall i part my hair behind? do i dare to eat a peach?
i shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach.
i have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.
i do not think that they will sing to me....
disturb the universe?
in a minute there is time
for decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.
for i have known them all already, known them all:—
have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons,
i have measured out my life with coffee spoons;
i know the voices dying with a dying fall
beneath the music from a farther room.
so how should I presume?
and i have known the eyes already, known them all—
the eyes that fix you in a formulated phrase,
and when i am formulated, sprawling on a pin,
when i am pinned and wriggling on the wall,
then how should i begin
to spit out all the butt-ends of my days and ways?
...i am no prophet—and here’s no great matter;
i have seen the moment of my greatness flicker,
and i have seen the eternal footman hold my coat, and snicker,
and in short, i was afraid.
and would it have been worth it, after all,
after the cups, the marmalade, the tea,
among the porcelain, among some talk of you and me,
would it have been worth while,
to have bitten off the matter with a smile,
to have squeezed the universe into a ball
to roll it toward some overwhelming question,
to say: “i am lazarus, come from the dead,
come back to tell you all, i shall tell you all”—
if one, settling a pillow by her head,
should say: “that is not what i meant at all.
that is not it, at all.”
...i grow old … i grow old …
i shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.
shall i part my hair behind? do i dare to eat a peach?
i shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach.
i have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.
i do not think that they will sing to me....
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2004-02-16 04:43 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-02-16 08:36 am (UTC)Re: i could have sworn i commented on this
Date: 2004-02-16 11:26 pm (UTC)