Friday, February 03, 2006

A day late ...

for the silent poetry reading, but I do hope you'll forgive me.
This has always been my favorite poem, although it's perhaps no longer personally appropriate - certainly not to be taken as any sort of comment on the state of my marriage!

Edna St. Vincent Millay - "What Lips My Lips Have Kissed"

What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why,
I have forgotten, and what arms have lain
Under my head till morning; but the rain
Is full of ghosts tonight, that tap and sigh
Upon the glass and listen for reply,
And in my heart there stirs a quiet pain
For unremembered lads that not again
Will turn to me at midnight with a cry.
Thus in winter stands the lonely tree,
Nor knows what birds have vanished one by one,
Yet knows its boughs more silent than before:
I cannot say what loves have come and gone,
I only know that summer sang in me
A little while, that in me sings no more.

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