Vox Populi
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Larry Levis: François Villon on the Condition of Pity in Our Time
Frères humains qui après nous vivez,
Soon they’ll have the speed freak twisting
On a scaffold, soon the birds
Will come to peck out his eyes, & when
He’s too weak & exhausted to turn
His head away, they’ll do it, too,
They’ll peck his eyes right out.
You’ll want to watch it happen, you’ll want
To witness it. You’ll want to see Paolo
And Francesca almost touch before
They’re swept away again, him in one line
Waiting for rations, her in another one,
Both of them naked, standing there,
Cock & nipples shriveled in the cold.
Frères humains qui après nous vivez,
N’ayez les cœurs contre nous endurcis.
In wind & rain, the lovers almost touch,
And gulls & ravens settle on his shoulders.
You watch because you love to watch.
In plague times, the streets fill with voyeurs.
I know. The sockets of my eyes are dry
As little thimbles made of blistered skin,
And that inward savor of the infinite
Is salt again, one wave hidden in another.
We’re broken buttons, we’re blown dust.
There’s not one tear left in all of us.
I know, for I am François Villon, murderer,
Thief: pustules, blisters, triumphing sores,
Your disappearing likeness on the cross!
~
Read David St. John’s notes on this poem.
Copyright 2014 the estate of Larry Levis. Included in Vox Populi for noncommercial educational purposes only.
Larry Levis (1946 – 1996) grew up driving a tractor, picking grapes, and pruning vines in Selma, California, a small fruit-growing town in the San Joaquin Valley. He published five award-winning books of poetry during his lifetime. Since his death from a heart attack caused by a cocaine overdose, three more volumes of his poetry, along with a book of essays, have been published to general acclaim.
François Villon (c. 1431 – after 1463) is the best known French poet of the Late Middle Ages. He was involved in criminal behavior and had multiple encounters with law enforcement authorities.
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What an unflinching poet he was.
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Devastating poem.
Takes me to Goya’s Disasters of War in its tonalities, and it is amazing to consider he wasn’t motivated as we would be today to write just it’s title, alone, much less derive its content and meaning from Gaza, or Ukraine, Uvalde or Sandy Hook, such as he never lived to see. Alas, the human condition at that moment had plenty of horror in supply. I’m still in a “Get acquainted” phase with Larry Levis, but I’m moving forward in amazement, this poem no exception, and a most unusual step thus far.
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I think that Levis was the best poet of his generation.
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I’ll bet Laure-Anne would sympathize with that notion!
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Yes siree! I joyfully agree!
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Have loved this Levis piece, right up my alley, Michael; thanks for putting it up.
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Thanks, Jerry.
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Human brothers who live after us,
Do not harden your hearts against us.
An excellent and moving poem.
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Searing poem. This one hurts.
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Ditto, Marty — one ofLarry’s personae poems that make one gasp!
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