[a parodic and whimsical poem]
He kissed her goodbye,
his heart as heavy as a freshly bound doctoral thesis.
II.
There, beyond the foggy shoals, rose Edinburgh Castle
A thesis of nationalism and clannish blood.
III.
And you, Paul, man of contradictions -
O faltering tower! Impossible thesis!
IV.
The thesis remained there, on the shelf,
Metonymous to ten thousand others -
Immobile soldiers, huddling in rank -
A monument of failed human hope.
V.
The snow was coming thick and fast now
Like footnotes in an amateur's thesis.
VI.
If we could have known it would be this good,
we might have steeled our nerves,
embraced the contradiction
and leaped into the thesis.
VII.
Is hope, then, just a thesis,
an arid disputation,
an argument, a riddle?
No, she could not believe it...
VIII.
Yes, Professor Hegel, he used to say,
But at the end of the day
Your thesis cannot clothe and feed you.
IX.
Apocalypse of hope and longing,
Too long entombed in the theses
Of tired academics who have now forgotten
The thrill of being mastered and addressed -
X.
The question rested uneasy between my lips,
a thesis only awkwardly achieved -
but might it work?
XI.
Why do you ask, O wicked generation,
for theses and disputations?
Look within the libraries of your hearts.
XII.
He turned hopeful to the dawning sun:
This was to be the moment of declaration,
the viva vox defense of his heart's thesis -
How many years he longed for this.
XIII.
I do not know which to prefer -
the innocence of expectation,
or the innocence of consummation -
the writing of the thesis,
or just after.
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1 comment:
David,
I ran into Mr Roaul(?) at a GATE meeting last week. He was sitting in for someone. He asked about you and if you were still writing poetry. I see that I should have changed my answer...He was glad to hear how well all of you are doing...It seems that the habit you developed in his class of staying up late to give your writing your everything has stayed with you all these years.... You must remember to be generous with your input and comments when you are the professor and the studens under you ask for our guidance...
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