Ariel's Reply

For poetry makes nothing happen.

W. H. Auden

If reading learned books

had been why Auden lost his looks

then Prospero would have died

by thirty-five. But he applied

moderation, and left for me

the songs and lays and poetry.

He understood

that in this wood

that I made everything happen:

from hearts that love to dreams misshapen

to a conscience set on fire.

Booze and drugs cannot conspire

to ruin age

so fast as poetry. Language

affects

what is most delicate:

each self's desire that pulls upon the skin.

And parchment itself is treated skin.

So why should scholars look to alcohol

as cause for Auden's face to fall?

He was simply

too prolific. Too many meters that he

wielded in too short a time.

I had a thousand years to practice rhyme

and I'm not mortal. Wystan

misunderstood and rushed, misspoke. Tristan,

Orpheus, Antony,

the lovers out of Dante

all made life happen, even if in loss.

My groans through the thick moss

of that tree

were poetry.

Which, of course, led to release,

which is the center, if you please,

of any form of verse.

That which plays upon the nerves

and calls to mind

the music that we could not find

ourselves. It's been centuries

since Prospero had me take the seas

into my hands, and still

I practice in these hills.

Since tourists come here nowadays,

I help them stroll along the bay

and notice one another,

heading for the bar when clouds gather.

She thinks she chose that flower for her hair,

and luck allowed that last dress to be hers.

He will believe

his taste tells him that olive

suits her well... .

Ambition, talent

were yours, Wystan. You needed to be gallant

and more patient. Let others

be the stars.

Yes, that's right.

At night

when she readies herself in the shadow

of the dusk's soft shade;

when she bends to strap on

her sandals -this air made nothing happen.