William Williams
William Williams
cute-love edge love sweet-love
It is at the edge of a petal that love waits.
assertion broken environment failing lifting means poem social thus total toward
The poem, to me (until I go broke) is an attempt, an experiment, a failing experiment, toward assertion with broken means but an assertion, always, of a new and total culture, the lifting of an environment to expression. Thus it is social, the poem is a social instrument.
race
We are a half-mad race, and what we say is not to be trusted.
deep odor passing rank
With what deep thirstwe quicken our desiresto that rank odor of a passing springtime!
ground perform teach
I will teach you my townspeoplehow to perform a funeralfor you have it over a troopof artists--unless one should scour the world--you have the ground sense necessary.
lies lies-and-lying manner matters secret
It is not what you say that matters but the manner in which you say it; there lies the secret of the ages.
branches hang leaves tale winter
Some leaves hang late, some fallbefore the first frost--so goesthe tale of winter branches and old bones.
branches fall goes hang leaves tale winter
Some leaves hang late, some fall before the first frost--so goes the tale of winter branches and old bones.
bad bitter choose dreams left turn
Well--all things turn bitter in the endwhether you choose the right orthe left wayand--dreams are not a bad thing.
bad bitter choose dreams left turn whether
Well-- all things turn bitter in the end whether you choose the right or the left way and-- dreams are not a bad thing.
disease stop
I think all writing is a disease. You can't stop it.
blind lives
We are blind and live our blind lives out in blindness.
amount ask continued equal frequently interest late medicine nearly reply
When they ask me, as of late they frequently do, how I have for so many years continued an equal interest in medicine and the poem, I reply that they amount for me to nearly the same thing.
prepared sleeping sure thus wise
Thus having prepared their budsagainst a sure winterthe wise treesstand sleeping in the cold.