POETRY 1948

this age
of civil strife
is no age
for poetry
and such like:
when something is about
to
be written
it's
as if
it were being written
on the other side
of death announcements

which is why
my poems
are so bitter
(and when - in any case - were they not?)
and are
- above all -
also
so
few

Translated by David Connolly