Lawrence, you are a fine man, a true Marine, and often, an inspiration
to me. I can say nothing, faced by helplessness before another's deep
sorrow, even though echoed in a fine poem.
Strongly recommend Richard Wilbur's poem. "Walking to Sleep." It's very
hard to find online, but is in the Collected Poems. This long poem
employs consistent seafaring metaphors, as does Lawrence's last stanza
below. It is a masterpiece poem, Walking to Sleep, and has accompanied
me throughout life, both as text and in the out-of-print Caedmon
recording of Wilbur reading it. Prefer it to Auden's "September 1, 1939."
Other poems that follow me are Longfellow's "Psalm of Life," Marianne
Moore's "What Are Years?" Wallace Stevens's "The Auroras of Autumn," W.
H. Auden's "In Memory of Sigmund Freud," Thomas Gray's "Elegy Written in
a Country Churchyard," Prospero's Epilogue from Shakespeare's "The
Tempest" and the Sonnet 15, and Rilke's "Ninth Elegy." There are many
other such poems.
Do others have lifelong poems that follow and ramify? Seems the least to
ask.
Regards,
Eric
On 3/14/2018 1:27 PM, Lawrence Helm wrote:
Thanks, Ursula.
-----Original Message-----
From: lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On ;
Behalf Of Ursula Stange
Sent: Wednesday, March 14, 2018 4:00 AM
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Madness
These are sadly beautiful, Lawrence. The Last Leaf, of course, reminds one of
the O’Henry story....without the happy ending. But life and love is so
consternating.....none of us can quite understand. But it’s nice to hear your
voice in these parts again.
On Mar 14, 2018, at 1:28 AM, Lawrence Helm <lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:------------------------------------------------------------------
I often wonder if I’m mad,
Or if now and then in the past
I was, for was I not love-struck
Such that living without her was
Something I couldn’t bear to do?
But three years later I am perhaps
Living still as though a will
Divorced itself from the downward
Thrust of death which of course
Isn’t the same as bearing to live --
Listing here as though a boat who’s
Hull was breached and was left at
High tide far up the beach, far
From the sea it used to sail.
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