True Love enjoys
twenty-twenty vision,
but talks like a myopic.
—————
Justice: permission to peck
a wee bit harder
than we have been pecked.
—————
He hid when he saw
a Minister approaching
with a worried look.
—————
Years before doctors
had invented the jargon,
he knew from watching
his maiden-aunts that illness
could be psychosomatic.
—————
Man must either fall in love
with Someone or Something
or else fall ill.
—————
Few can remember
clearly when innocence came
to a sudden end,
the moment at which we ask
for the first time: Am I loved?
As a bonus, here’s the solo from The Twelve:
O Lord, my God,
Though I forsake Thee,
Forsake me not,
But guide me as I walk
Through the Valley of Mistrust,
And let the cry of my disbelieving absence
Come unto Thee,
Thou who declared unto Moses
I SHALL BE THERE.
COMMENTS
7 responses to “Twenty-Twenty Love and Worried Ministers: A Few of W.H. Auden’s Marginalia”
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Fabulous quotes!
Every one a gem.
one more, also from the Marginalia:
The tobacco farmers
were Baptists who considered
smoking a sin.
smoke ’em if you got ’em!
Justice: permission to peck
a wee bit harder
than we have been pecked.
I love it.
my dear wife is pregnant, due any day now.
Alas, no smoking for me.
David, et al, As a lawyer, I prefer the client who just wants money over the client who just wants justice any day. The guy who just wants money is much more inclined to show a little grace. That is why sincere Christians are almost always every lawyer’s nightmare…they want “justice”, which means their pound (at least) of flesh, and that makes a lawsuit nasty and impossible to settle.