Chard DeNiord: At Auden’s Grave, September 1, 2016

      “We must love one another or die.”   — W.H. Auden                                                            

What caused you to think it was a lie,

Old Master—that either/or that gave you pause

in “September 1, 1939”? 

You thought love transcended death and then 

you doubted that and sent your poem to the drawer 

so you could work on it some more in your head, 

change “or” to “and,” which was “still no good” 

you thought, causing you to swear, “That’s a damned 

lie. We must die anyway…” 

You had forgotten why you wrote the law 

we loved and need to hear in every age. 

It seems that death had turned your mind so purely 

literal that you forgot that we can die 

alive before we die in bed. But now 

that you are gone, we’re free to save your banished 

line and publish it against your will 

as true enough since we believe as you 

believed at first that we can live forever 

here by loving now for just a while.

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Copyright 2019 Chard DeNiord