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May 18th, 2008 - we have 237 poets, 8036 poems and 17449 comments.
Donald Justice - 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.

Even while you sit there, unmovable,
You have begun to vanish. And it does no matter.
The poem will go on without you.
It has the spurious glamor of certain voids.

It is not sad, really, only empty.
Once perhaps it was sad, no one knows why.
It prefers to remember nothing.
Nostalgias were peeled from it long ago.

Your type of beauty has no place here.
Night is the sky over this poem.
It is too black for stars.
And do not look for any illumination.

You neither can nor should understand what it means.
Listen, it comes with out guitar,
Neither in rags nor any purple fashion.
And there is nothing in it to comfort you.

Close your eyes, yawn. It will be over soon.
You will forge the poem, but not before
It has forgotten you. And it does not matter.
It has been most beautiful in its erasures.

O bleached mirrors! Oceans of the drowned!
Nor is one silence equal to another.
And it does not matter what you think.
This poem is not addressed to you.

Added: on November 1st, 2005 at 11:24 AM | Viewed: 46428 times | Comments and analysis of Poem by Donald Justice Comments (15)


Poem - Comments and Information

Poet: Donald Justice
Poem: Poem

Comment 15 of 15, added on January 25th, 2006 at 12:23 PM.

It was uber cool... Yet odd...

Bill from Bulgaria
Comment 14 of 15, added on December 11th, 2005 at 1:30 PM.

I love this poem. Although Donald Justice can be considered a great "hippie" poet, instead of ranting on about LSD and LBJ, this poem really goes deep into questioning the poem itself. While reading numerous poems and practically falling asleep during Shakespeare's sonnets (I love Shakespeare, don't get me wrong), this poem really stood out and made me stop what I was doing, making everything seem un-important and meaningless compared to the message of the poem. But what do my words matter? It wasn't addressed to me anyway.

Aly from United States
Comment 13 of 15, added on November 1st, 2005 at 11:24 AM.

I didnt get this at first. But after me and my friends analyzed it in class, i kinda got it, but i still dont get the whole meaning of the poem. i looked up nostalgia and i got it that he's trying to say that the poem has no emotion no feeling, no nostalgia, but it does! it leaves you with the bittersweet wanting of the meaning of the poem, and then that makes you think it may have comfort in it too thats hidden away...

Angelina from United States

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