14 Quotes by Donald Justice

Go then, O my inseperable, this once more,

Poem to Be Read at 3:00 A.M.by Donald JusticeExcepting the dinerOn the outskirtsThe town of Ladoraat 3 A.M.Was dark butFor my headlightsAnd up inOne second-story roomA single lightWhere someoneWas sick orPerhaps readingAs I drove pastAt seventyNot thinkingThis poemIs for whoeverHad the light on

On the porch, green-shuttered, cool,Asleep is Bertram, that bronze boy,Who, having wound her around a spool,Sends her spinning like a toyOut to the garden, all alone,To sit and weep on a bench of stone.Soon the purple dark will bruiseLily and bleeding-heart and rose,And the little Cupid loseEyes and ears and chin and nose,And Jane lie down with others soonNaked to the naked moon.

See how the fearful chandelier trembles above you each time you open your mouth to sing.Sing.

Soon the purple dark must bruise Lily and bleeding-heart and rose, And the little Cupid lose Eyes and ears and chin and nose

There is no way to ease the burden. The voyage leads on from harm to harm, A land of others and of silence.

Men at forty Learn to close softly The doors to rooms they will not be Coming back to.

The artist will have had his revenge for being made to wait, A revenge not only necessary but right and clever-- Simply to leave him out of the scene forever.

How shall I speak of Doom, and ours in special, But as of something altogether common?