one favorite poem

[baldanders.livejournal.com]

Among his many marvelous sonnets, this one stands out for me:

IMMORTALITY

You do not want to live and never die
Till reason rots and humor disappears;
You'll have to wave the ones you love good-bye,
Or worse, endure them all those endless years.
You will be sorry that you soldiered on
When others chose as blissful dust to dwell;
When all your stock of anecdotes is gone,
All space and time look like a cheap motel.
You will not like the world your children build:
It will be strange and dull and bleak and mad;
You'll leave what span you're given unfulfilled
The same damn ways you wasted what you had.
To use Her basely Time will not forgive:
You do not want to live, who do not live.

I think of it every time someone tells me they wouldn't want to live forever. To me, the poem neatly sums up the anti-immortality position, then in the last four lines places the responsibility where it belongs.

Comments

[gypsy1969.livejournal.com]

I read this verry sonnet to my UUCF group last night. We have a check in and I felt it important to share it with my group.