Metamorphosis

Out of sight, out of mind.
This is how I want to die.
I have tried; I would fight.
I miss you one thousand and one nights.

Birds of a feather flock together.
Poems to a lover are nothing but treasure.
I am richer and I am poorer
because you and I aren't meant to be together.

I looked at the sky full of kites.
There was neither sign nor delight.
Had you cried; had you sighed,
I would travel at the speed of light.

Those who are sadder become wiser.
He who suffers will grow all the sober.
My gait staggers; my voice falters.
Alas, the playful Cupid is a blind killer.

The Starry Night, by Anne Sexton

The town does not exist
except where one black-haired tree slips
up like a drowned woman into the hot sky.
The town is silent. The night boils with eleven stars.
Oh starry starry night! This is how
I want to die.

It moves. They are all alive.
Even the moon bulges in its orange irons
to push children, like a god, from its eye.
The old unseen serpent swallows up the stars.
Oh starry starry night! This is how
I want to die:

into that rushing beast of the night,
sucked up by that great dragon, to split
from my life with no flag,
no belly,
no cry.


【十月六號】改學生作業，意外發現好詩一首。

The Illiterate, by William Meredith (1958)

Touching your goodness, I am like a man
Who turns a letter over in his hand
And you might think this was because the hand
Was unfamiliar but, truth is, the man
Has never had a letter from anyone;
And now he is both afraid of what it means
And ashamed because he has no other means
To find out what it says than to ask someone.

His uncle could have left the farm to him,
Or his parents died before he sent them word,
Or the dark girl changed and want him for beloved.
Afraid and letter-proud, he keeps it with him.
What would you call his feeling for the words
That keep him rich and orphaned and beloved?

批：為何我聯想到「九品芝麻官」？號稱會寫情詩的奴才竟連「死」字都不認得？