Do you know this poem? it's by Christopher Reid from his recent collection about his wife's death, A Scattering:A Reasonable Thing to AskPlease explain tears. They must have some purpose that a Darwin or a Freud would have understood. Widowed, a man hears music off the radio – Handel – Cole Porter – that sharply recalls her, and they swamp up again. A faculty that interferes with seeing and speaking and leaves him feeling weaker: what does he gain by it? What do we gain by it – blind to the tiger’s leap, voiceless under the avalanche? Somebody must know.
Do you know this poem? it's by Christopher Reid from his recent collection about his wife's death, A Scattering:
ReplyDeleteA Reasonable Thing to Ask
Please explain tears.
They must have some purpose
that a Darwin or a Freud
would have understood.
Widowed, a man hears
music off the radio –
Handel – Cole Porter –
that sharply recalls her,
and they swamp up again.
A faculty that interferes
with seeing and speaking
and leaves him feeling weaker:
what does he gain by it?
What do we gain by it –
blind to the tiger’s leap,
voiceless under the avalanche?
Somebody must know.