• the more loving one

  • Looking up at the stars, I know quite well
  • That, for all they care, I can go to hell,
  • But on earth indifference is the least
  • We have to dread from man or beast.
  • How should we like it were stars to burn
  • With a passion for us we could not return?
  • If equal affection cannot be,
  • Let the more loving one be me.
  • Admirer as I think I am
  • Of stars that do not give a damn,
  • I cannot, now I see them, say
  • I missed one terribly all day.
  • Were all stars to disappear or die,
  • I should learn to look at an empty sky
  • And feel its total dark sublime,
  • Though this might take a little time.
  • :::next:::
  • the hidden law

  • The Hidden Law does not deny
  • Our laws of probability,
  • But takes the atom and the star
  • And human beings as they are,
  • And answers nothing when we lie.
  • It is the only reason why
  • No government can codify,
  • And verbal definitions mar
  • The Hidden Law.
  • Its utter patience will not try
  • To stop us if we want to die:
  • When we escape it in a car,
  • When we forget it in a bar,
  • These are the ways we're punished by
  • :::back:::
  • journal
  • consultations
  • store
  • links
  • poetry

w.h. auden