For the sake of something to carry.
January 13, 2011 8:28 PM Subscribe
Help me identify the author of this poem.
My dad passed this along to me from a colleague that did not know the origin. Mayhaps, AskMeFi does? I have googled and have come up with nothing.
LOSS
I carry my loss day after day,
Like any grown-up:
On my shoulder, on my hip,
Shifting its weight from side to side,
Occasionally lifting it atop my head like a woman
Carrying goods to market,
Sometimes dragging it behind me
By a frayed string.
It’s a bulky package, loss,
But all the grown-ups around me
Are staggering to balance
Their own awkward burdens. I wish
Someone had told me when I was young:
“See those tall people with strained faces?
Their hearts are heavy as hammers
That have fallen from distant stars.
That’s loss on their shoulders,
In the space their arms shape, the hollow of their chests.
They’re in mourning
For their Mothers, who were brisk and tall
With clear voices. Let’s not even talk
About Fathers.
The littlest thing will remind them:
Candy dishes like their grandmothers’
Bitten-down lipstick. Mateless earrings.
Loss, my darling,
A gray word,
The color of nickel
Too small to buy anything with,
Too small to give or save.”
And if someone had
Told me all this –what would I have done?
Gone on playing,
Or pretending to play, the way children will,
For the sake of the game,
For the sake of having something to carry.
My dad passed this along to me from a colleague that did not know the origin. Mayhaps, AskMeFi does? I have googled and have come up with nothing.
LOSS
I carry my loss day after day,
Like any grown-up:
On my shoulder, on my hip,
Shifting its weight from side to side,
Occasionally lifting it atop my head like a woman
Carrying goods to market,
Sometimes dragging it behind me
By a frayed string.
It’s a bulky package, loss,
But all the grown-ups around me
Are staggering to balance
Their own awkward burdens. I wish
Someone had told me when I was young:
“See those tall people with strained faces?
Their hearts are heavy as hammers
That have fallen from distant stars.
That’s loss on their shoulders,
In the space their arms shape, the hollow of their chests.
They’re in mourning
For their Mothers, who were brisk and tall
With clear voices. Let’s not even talk
About Fathers.
The littlest thing will remind them:
Candy dishes like their grandmothers’
Bitten-down lipstick. Mateless earrings.
Loss, my darling,
A gray word,
The color of nickel
Too small to buy anything with,
Too small to give or save.”
And if someone had
Told me all this –what would I have done?
Gone on playing,
Or pretending to play, the way children will,
For the sake of the game,
For the sake of having something to carry.
Definitely nothing like Larkin - he wasn't known for being particularly sentimental about parents. I'm going to go out on a limb and say it's some kind of unpublished chain email.
posted by Ted Maul at 10:43 PM on January 13, 2011 [2 favorites]
posted by Ted Maul at 10:43 PM on January 13, 2011 [2 favorites]
There's nothing visible via Google, that's for sure. Except for this thread and derivatives thereof.
posted by AmbroseChapel at 12:41 AM on January 14, 2011
posted by AmbroseChapel at 12:41 AM on January 14, 2011
Random thought, this is a translation from another language? People who know other languages could try Googling key phrases?
posted by AmbroseChapel at 12:45 AM on January 14, 2011
posted by AmbroseChapel at 12:45 AM on January 14, 2011
And Larkin wouldn't be writing about 'candy dishes' nor I fancy making that clunky metaphor with hammers that fall from stars.
posted by Abiezer at 2:01 AM on January 14, 2011
posted by Abiezer at 2:01 AM on January 14, 2011
Also if the poem has been published, you may want to be careful about copying the whole thing out on the Internet - copyright...
posted by KMH at 3:25 AM on January 14, 2011
posted by KMH at 3:25 AM on January 14, 2011
Also if the poem has been published, you may want to be careful about copying the whole thing out on the Internet - copyright...
There's no violation of copyright here.
posted by Sidhedevil at 10:48 AM on January 14, 2011
There's no violation of copyright here.
posted by Sidhedevil at 10:48 AM on January 14, 2011
Definitely, definitely not Philip Larkin. He was a pretty decent poet.
posted by Joseph Gurl at 7:18 PM on January 14, 2011
posted by Joseph Gurl at 7:18 PM on January 14, 2011
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by TheBones at 9:15 PM on January 13, 2011