Walls
Constrain us. O do you remember
The peninsula where we so nearly died,
And the way the trees looked owned,
Human and domestic like a group of horses?
They said it was Greece.
MAN
Through Prussia into Russia,
Through Holland to Poland,
Through Rumania into Albania.
WOMAN
Following the rotation of the seasons.
OLD MAN
We are getting the refugee habit:
The past and the future are not enough,
Are two walls only between which to die:
Who can live in a house with two walls?
MAN
The present is an eternal journey;
In one country winter, in another spring.
OLD MAN
I am sick of the general deaths:
We have seen them impersonally dying:
Everything I had hoped for, fireside and hearth,
And death by compromise some summer evening.
MAN
You are getting the refugee habit:
You are carrying the past in you
Like a precious vessel, remembering
Its essence, ownership and ordinary loving.
WOMAN
We are too young to remember.
OLD MAN
Nothing disturbed such life as I remember
But telephone or telegram,
Such death-bringers to the man among the roses
In the garden of his house, smoking a pipe.
WOMAN
We are the dispossessed, sharing
With gulls and flowers our lives of accident:
No time for love, no room for love:
If only the childrenâ
MAN
Were less wild and unkept, belonged
To the human family, not speechless,
OLD MAN
And shy as the squirrels in the trees:
WOMAN
If only the children
OLD MAN
Recognized their father, smiled once more.
OLD MAN + WOMAN
They have got the refugee habit,
Walking about in the rain hunting for food,
Looking at their faces in the bottom of wells:
OLD MAN
They are living the popular life.
All Europe is moving out of winter
Into spring with all boundaries being
Broken down, dissolving, vanishing.
Migrations are beginning, a new habit
From where the icebergs rise in the sky
To valleys where corn is spread like butter â¦
WOMAN
So many men and women: each one a soul.
MAN
So many souls crossing the world,
OLD MAN
So many bridges to the end of the world.
Frontiers mean nothing any more â¦
WOMAN
Peoples and possessions,
Lands, rights,
Titles, holdings,
Trusts, Bonds â¦
OLD MAN
Mean nothing any more, nothing.
A whistle, a box, a shawl, a cup,
A broken sword wrapped in newspaper.
WOMAN
All we have left us, out of context,
OLD MAN
A jar, a mousetrap, a broken umbrella,
A coin, a pipe, a pressed flower
WOMAN
To make an alphabet for our children.
OLD MAN
A chain, a whip, a lock,
A drum and a dancing bear â¦
WOMAN
We have got the refugee habit.
Beyond tears at last, into some sort of safety
From fear of wanting, fear of hoping,
Fear of everything but dying.
We can die now.
OLD MAN
Frontiers mean nothing any more. Dear Greece!
MAN
Yes. We can die now.
1946/ 1946
PRESSMARKED URGENT
âMens sana in corpore sanoâ Motto for Press CorpsÂ
DESPATCH ADGENERAL PUBLICS EXTHE WEST
PERPETUAL MOTION QUITE UNFINDING REST
ADVANCES ETRETREATS UPON ILLUSION
PREPARES NEW METAPHYSICS PERCONFUSION Â
PARA PERDISPOSITION ADNEW EVIL
ETREFUSAL ADCONCEDE OUR ACTS ADDEVIL
NEITHER PROFIT SHOWS NOR LOSS
SEDSOME MORE PROPHETS NAILED ADCROSS
ATTACK IN FORCE SURMEANS NONENDS
BY MULTIPLYING CONFUSION TENDS
ADCLOUD THE ISSUES WHICH ARE PLAIN
COLON DISTINGUISH PROFIT EXGAIN
ETBY SMALL CONCEPTS LONG NEGLECTED
FIND VIRTUE SUBACTION CLEAR REFLECTED
ETWEIGHING THE QUANTUM OF THE SIN
BEGIN TO BE REPEAT BEGIN.
1946/ 1946
TWO POEMS IN BASIC ENGLISH
I
S HIPS . I SLANDS . T REES
These ships, these islands, these simple trees
Are our rewards in substance, being poor.
This earth a dictionary is
To the root and growth of seeing,
And to the servant heart a door.
Some on the green surface of the land
With all their canvas up in leaf and flower,
And some empty of influence
But from the water-winds,
Free as loveâs green attractions are.
Smoke bitter and blue from farms.
And points of feeble light in houses
Come after
Constrain us. O do you remember
The peninsula where we so nearly died,
And the way the trees looked owned,
Human and domestic like a group of horses?
They said it was Greece.
MAN
Through Prussia into Russia,
Through Holland to Poland,
Through Rumania into Albania.
WOMAN
Following the rotation of the seasons.
OLD MAN
We are getting the refugee habit:
The past and the future are not enough,
Are two walls only between which to die:
Who can live in a house with two walls?
MAN
The present is an eternal journey;
In one country winter, in another spring.
OLD MAN
I am sick of the general deaths:
We have seen them impersonally dying:
Everything I had hoped for, fireside and hearth,
And death by compromise some summer evening.
MAN
You are getting the refugee habit:
You are carrying the past in you
Like a precious vessel, remembering
Its essence, ownership and ordinary loving.
WOMAN
We are too young to remember.
OLD MAN
Nothing disturbed such life as I remember
But telephone or telegram,
Such death-bringers to the man among the roses
In the garden of his house, smoking a pipe.
WOMAN
We are the dispossessed, sharing
With gulls and flowers our lives of accident:
No time for love, no room for love:
If only the childrenâ
MAN
Were less wild and unkept, belonged
To the human family, not speechless,
OLD MAN
And shy as the squirrels in the trees:
WOMAN
If only the children
OLD MAN
Recognized their father, smiled once more.
OLD MAN + WOMAN
They have got the refugee habit,
Walking about in the rain hunting for food,
Looking at their faces in the bottom of wells:
OLD MAN
They are living the popular life.
All Europe is moving out of winter
Into spring with all boundaries being
Broken down, dissolving, vanishing.
Migrations are beginning, a new habit
From where the icebergs rise in the sky
To valleys where corn is spread like butter â¦
WOMAN
So many men and women: each one a soul.
MAN
So many souls crossing the world,
OLD MAN
So many bridges to the end of the world.
Frontiers mean nothing any more â¦
WOMAN
Peoples and possessions,
Lands, rights,
Titles, holdings,
Trusts, Bonds â¦
OLD MAN
Mean nothing any more, nothing.
A whistle, a box, a shawl, a cup,
A broken sword wrapped in newspaper.
WOMAN
All we have left us, out of context,
OLD MAN
A jar, a mousetrap, a broken umbrella,
A coin, a pipe, a pressed flower
WOMAN
To make an alphabet for our children.
OLD MAN
A chain, a whip, a lock,
A drum and a dancing bear â¦
WOMAN
We have got the refugee habit.
Beyond tears at last, into some sort of safety
From fear of wanting, fear of hoping,
Fear of everything but dying.
We can die now.
OLD MAN
Frontiers mean nothing any more. Dear Greece!
MAN
Yes. We can die now.
1946/ 1946
PRESSMARKED URGENT
âMens sana in corpore sanoâ Motto for Press CorpsÂ
DESPATCH ADGENERAL PUBLICS EXTHE WEST
PERPETUAL MOTION QUITE UNFINDING REST
ADVANCES ETRETREATS UPON ILLUSION
PREPARES NEW METAPHYSICS PERCONFUSION Â
PARA PERDISPOSITION ADNEW EVIL
ETREFUSAL ADCONCEDE OUR ACTS ADDEVIL
NEITHER PROFIT SHOWS NOR LOSS
SEDSOME MORE PROPHETS NAILED ADCROSS
ATTACK IN FORCE SURMEANS NONENDS
BY MULTIPLYING CONFUSION TENDS
ADCLOUD THE ISSUES WHICH ARE PLAIN
COLON DISTINGUISH PROFIT EXGAIN
ETBY SMALL CONCEPTS LONG NEGLECTED
FIND VIRTUE SUBACTION CLEAR REFLECTED
ETWEIGHING THE QUANTUM OF THE SIN
BEGIN TO BE REPEAT BEGIN.
1946/ 1946
TWO POEMS IN BASIC ENGLISH
I
S HIPS . I SLANDS . T REES
These ships, these islands, these simple trees
Are our rewards in substance, being poor.
This earth a dictionary is
To the root and growth of seeing,
And to the servant heart a door.
Some on the green surface of the land
With all their canvas up in leaf and flower,
And some empty of influence
But from the water-winds,
Free as loveâs green attractions are.
Smoke bitter and blue from farms.
And points of feeble light in houses
Come after
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