Yes, I have it, but don't have a scanner. But I knew how to find it online, because I could choose a line containing the unusual word "distrait." One hit only, and here it is, and it is wonderful, and nothing could be more fun than reading Stevie Smith aloud. Well, reading GMHopkins, an altogether different kettle of fish, of course, is up there. I think I mentioned a long time ago on feelies that the best party I ever went to was a dinner party at which, unplanned (someone grabbed a volume in which to look something up), those around the table each chose a favorite poem or two or three to read aloud. There were many really pro readers there, Galway Kinnell among them, and Ed Doctorow, and (this one is odd and I don't remember his reading, for some reason, though he must have) Maurice Sendak. It was wonderful, and I tried to get the host to make it a regular thing, but it didn't happen. He not long after was involved in a Broadway play, and his life got away from him. Oh well. They say that all good things must end, but my experience is that a great many of them hardly get started.
If I ever have a big house, I am going to have big eating and poetry-reading parties. I may even do it in this little one, now that I think of it. First someone has to clean it, I think. That is probably more important than size.
A bonus Stevie Smith before the main attraction:
-This Englishwoman-
This Englishwoman is so refined
She has no bosom and no behind.
This one is for you:
google.com
-Was he Married?-
Was he married, did he try
To support as he grew less fond of them
Wife and family?
No,
He never suffered such a blow.
Did he feel pointless, feeble and distrait,
Unwanted by everyone and in the way?
From his cradle he was purposeful,
His bent strong and his mind full.
Did he love people very much
Yet find them die one day?
He did not love in the human way.
Did he ask how long it would go on,
Wonder if Death could be counted on for an end?
He did not feel like this,
He had a future of bliss.
Did he never feel strong
Pain for being wrong?
He was not wrong, he was right,
He suffered from others', not his own, spite.
But there is no suffering like having made a mistake
Because of being of an inferior make.
He was not inferior,
He was superior.
He knew then that power corrupts but some must govern?
His thoughts were different.
Did he lack friends? Worse,
Think it was his fault, not theirs?
He did not lack friends,
He had disciples he moulded to his ends.
Did he feel oevr-handicapped sometimes, yet must draw even?
He could he feel like this? He was the King of Heaven.
. . . find a sudden brightness one day in everything
Because a mood had been conquered, or a sin?
I tell you, he did not sin.
Do only human beings suffer from the irritation
I have mentioned? learn too that being comical
Does not ameliorate the desperation?
Only human beings feel this,
It is because they are mixed.
All human beings should have a medal,
A god cannot carry it, he is not able.
A god is Man's doll, you ass,
He makes him up like this on purpose.
He might have made him up worse.
He often has, in the past.
To choose a god of love, as he did and does,
Is a little move then?
Yes, it is.
A larger one will be when men
Love love and hate hate but do not deify them?
It will be a larger one.
~Stevie Smith~ |
