The school year started already two months ago, but only recently - after the High Holidays - did I restart sending a poem to my colleagues every week. From today onwards, until the end of the school year (excluding holidays), I will post the week's poem on this blog as well. Each poem I choose from one of the poetry books in my steadily growing collection.
What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why -
Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892-1950)
What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why,
I have forgotten, and what arms have lain
Under my head till morning; but the rain
Is full of ghosts tonight, that tap and sigh
Upon the glass and listen for reply,
And in my heart there stirs a quiet pain
For unremembered lads that not again
Will turn to me at midnight with a cry.
Thus in winter stands the lonely tree,
Nor knows what birds have vanished one by one,
Yet knows its boughs more silent than before:
I cannot say what loves have come and gone,
I only know that summer sang in me
A little while, that in me sings no more.
(found in David Lehman (ed.), The Oxford Book of American Poetry)
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