Donald Justice Remember Poems
- 1. Sadness
1
Dear ghosts, dear presences, O my dear parents,
Why were you so sad on porches, whispering?
What great melancholies were loosed among our swings!
... - 2. Variations On A Text By Vallejo
Me moriré en Paris con aguacero ...
I will die in Miami in the sun,
On a day when the sun is very bright,
... - 3. Poem
This poem is not addressed to you.
You may come into it briefly,
But no one will find you here, no one.
You will have changed before the poem will.
... - 4. Pantoum Of The Great Depression
Our lives avoided tragedy
Simply by going on and on,
Without end and with little apparent meaning.
Oh, there were storms and small catastrophes.
... - 5. Villanelle At Sundown
Turn your head. Look. The light is turning yellow.
The river seems enriched thereby, not to say deepened.
Why this is, I'll never be able to tell you.
... - 6. Nostalgia Of The Lakefronts
Cities burn behind us; the lake glitters.
A tall loudspeaker is announcing prizes;
Another, by the lake, the times of cruises.
Childhood, once vast with terrors and surprises,
...