Donald Justice
Donald Justice
Donald Justicewas an American poet and teacher of writing. In summing up Justice's career David Orr wrote, "In most ways, Justice was no different from any number of solid, quiet older writers devoted to traditional short poems. But he was different in one important sense: sometimes his poems weren't just good; they were great. They were great in the way that Elizabeth Bishop's poems were great, or Thom Gunn's or Philip Larkin's. They were great in the way that tells...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPoet
Date of Birth12 August 1925
CountryUnited States of America
Now comes the evening of the mind. Here are the fireflies twitching in the blood.
Soon the purple dark must bruise Lily and bleeding-heart and rose, And the little Cupid lose Eyes and ears and chin and nose
There is no way to ease the burden. The voyage leads on from harm to harm, A land of others and of silence.
Men at forty Learn to close softly The doors to rooms they will not be Coming back to.
The artist will have had his revenge for being made to wait, A revenge not only necessary but right and clever-- Simply to leave him out of the scene forever.
How shall I speak of Doom, and ours in special, But as of something altogether common?
Nostalgias were peeled from it long ago.
If he could sleep on it. He would make his bed with white sheets And disappear into the white, Like a man diving, If he could be certain That the light Would not keep him awake, The light that reaches To the bottom.