Activity

GOD

At times I’m the god I carry in myself,
And then I’m the god, the believer and the prayer
And the ivory image
In which this god is forgotten.

At times I’m no more than an atheist
Of this god I am when exalted.
I see in myself an entire sky,
And it’s only a vast and hollow sky.
…

I got off the train
And said goodbye to the man I’d met.
We’d been together for eighteen hours
And had a pleasant conversation,
Fellowship in the journey,
And I was sorry to get off, sorry to leave
This chance friend whose name I never learned.
I felt my eyes water with tears . . .
Every fa…

No! All I want is freedom!
Love, glory, and wealth are prisons.
Lovely rooms? Nice furniture? Plush rugs?
Just let me out so I can be with myself.
I want to breathe the air in private.
My heart doesn’t throb collectively,
And I’m unable to feel in jointly held society.
I’m only I, born only …

(Lady who so often rode in the same compartment with me
On the suburban train,
Did you ever become interested in me?
Did I put time to good use by looking at you?
What was the rhythm of our silence in the moving train?
What was the understanding that we never came to?
What life was there in t…

Put time to good use!
But what’s time that I should put it to use?
Put time to good use!
Not a day without a few lines . . .
Honest and first-rate work
Like that of a Virgil or Milton . . .
But to be honest or first-rate is so hard!
To be Milton or Virgil is so unlikely!