Marriage

So different, this man

And this woman:

A stream flowing

In a field.

Marriage

William Carlos Williams

We are one.

Whenever I say "I" I mean also, "you." And so, together, as one, we shall begin.

Introduction to Spring and All 1923 [excerpt]
William Carlos Williams

so much depends

so much depends
upon

a red wheel
barrow

glazed with rain
water

beside the white
chickens


The Red Wheelbarrow
William Carlos Williams

The Ivy Crown

The whole process is a lie, 

unless, 

crowned by excess, 

it break forcefully,

one way or another,

from its confinement-

or find a deeper well.

Antony and Cleopatra

were right;

they have shown

the way. I love you

or I do not live

at all.

Daffodil time

is past. This is

summer, summer!

the heart says,

and not even the full of it. 

No doubts

are permitted – 

though they will come

and may

before our time

overwhelm us.

We are only mortal

but being mortal

can defy our fate.

We may

by an outside chance

even win! We do not

look to see

jonquils and violets

come again

but there are,

still,

the roses!

Romance has no part in it.

The business of love is

cruelty which,

by our wills,

we transform

to live together.
It has its seasons,

for and against,

whatever the heart

fumbles in the dark

to assert

toward the end of May.

Just as the nature of briars

is to tear flesh,

I have proceeded

through them.

Keep

the briars out,

they say.

You cannot live

and keep free of

briars.

Children pick flowers.

Let them.

Though having them

in hand

they have no further use for them

but leave them crumpled

at the curb’s edge.

At our age the imagination

across the sorry facts

lifts us

to make roses

stand before thorns.

Sure

love is cruel

and selfish 

and totally obtuse- 

at least, blinded by the light,

young love is.

But we are older,

I to love

and you to be loved,

we have,

no matter how,

by our wills survived

to keep

the jeweled prize

always

at our finger tips.

We will it so

and so it is

past all accident.

The Ivy Crown

William Carlos Williams

First Anniversary of The BP

Be patient that I address you in a poem,
                  there is no other
                                fit medium.

To Daphne and Virginia [excerpt]
William Carlos Williams

speaks to me

…a profusion
of pink roses bending ragged in the rain –
speaks to me of all gentleness and its
enduring.

To All Gentleness [excerpt]
William Carlos Williams

Poem

The rose fades
and is renewed again
by its seed, naturally
but where

save in the poem
shall it go
to suffer no diminution
of its splendor

Poem
William Carlos Williams

the joy of your approach

There is something
something urgent
I have to say to you
and you alone
but it must wait
while I drink in
the joy of your approach,
perhaps for the last time.

Asphodel, That Greeny Flower, Book I [excerpt]
William Carlos Williams

A rose is a rose...

A rose is a rose
and the poem equals it
if it be well made….


The Pink Locust [excerpt]
William Carlos Williams

a new mind.

A new world
is only a new mind.

To Daphne and Virginia [exerpt]
William Carlos Williams

THE ACT - William Carlos Williams

There were the roses, in the rain.
Don’t cut them, I pleaded.
                They won’t last, she said.
But they are so beautiful
                where they are.
Agh, we were all beautiful once, she
                said,
and cut them, and gave them to me
                in my hand.

THE ACT
William Carlos Williams

THE LOVING DEXTERITY [First Version] - William Carlos Williams

The flower
                fallen
a pink petal
                intact on the ground

Deftly
                she raised it
and placed it
                on its stem again

THE LOVING DEXTERITY [First Version]
William Carlos Williams