Sometimes when you're not thinking
what you think most common
goes beyond everything you've ever known,
like dreams that are of another language,
like the great sadnesses that go on and on
although you know there is nothing left to suffer.
Memory is servant to what needs remain.
And those days, when you think about it,
days out of all those that have already passed, too much seems known, too much unknown.
And when you're thinking no longer, everything comes back -- those lost
and what has been forgotten or unkown for so long.
Daniel Halpern, "On a Little Theme"
Poetry in issue 84, Summer 1982, The Paris Review
what you think most common
goes beyond everything you've ever known,
like dreams that are of another language,
like the great sadnesses that go on and on
although you know there is nothing left to suffer.
Memory is servant to what needs remain.
And those days, when you think about it,
days out of all those that have already passed, too much seems known, too much unknown.
And when you're thinking no longer, everything comes back -- those lost
and what has been forgotten or unkown for so long.
Daniel Halpern, "On a Little Theme"
Poetry in issue 84, Summer 1982, The Paris Review
Labels: literature, poetry
