Schools are Okay, for Fishes

"No one sounds like William Blake."
This I think inside an airport, stranded,
Due to blowing snow. I'm reading
Jarrell, Berryman, and even Lowell,
And I've seen they like the odd
Repeated phrase, allusions to such
Ancient things as prove they've
Gone to private schools (though,
Truly, as the lines go by, not only
What they seek to say, but what it
Is that they're describing, fades
From memory and dies). They
Knew each other; that I know,
While Blake, I think, in isolation,
Wrought his poems on his own,
And, now, we see what he has
Won: a voice unechoed. Those
Of schools begin to sound alike,
And lose themselves (and readers,
One would say). I'll take, I'll hope
To be, the one who doesn't sound
Like someone else, and also hope
(Though maybe wrongly) that the
Readers I would want would want
The poet who's alone, who sounds
Like no one else, not even Blake.



Poetry by Lawrence Beck The PoetBay support member heart!
Read 24 times
Written on 2013-04-10 at 01:14

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