Asphodel, That Greeny Flower

an excerpt by William Carlos Williams.

Love                                            

     to which you too shall bow

along with me-                    

     a flower                                              

  a weakest flower

shall be our trust                       

and not because                                               

we are too feeble

to do otherwise                       

but because                                               

at the height of my power

I risked what I had to do,                       

therefore to prove                                               

that we love each other

while my very bones sweated                       

that I could not cry to you                                               

in the act.

Of asphodel, that greeny flower,                       

I come, my sweet,                                               

to sing to you!

My heart rouses                       

thinking to bring you news 

                                             of something

that concerns you

                        and concerns many men.  Look at                                               

what passes for the new.

You will not find it there but in

                       despised poems.

                                                 It is difficult

to get the news from poems

                       yet men die miserably every day 

                                               for lack

of what is found there.                       

Hear me out

                                                 for I too am concerned

and every man

                        who wants to die at peace in his

bed                                               

besides.