Hope

Selected Poems (1955)

The spirit killeth, but the letter giveth life.The week is dealt out like a handThat children pick up card by card.One keeps getting the same hand.One keeps getting the same card.But twice a day — except on Saturday —The wheel stops, there is a crack in Time:With a hiss of soles, a rattle of tin,My own gray Daemon pauses on the stair,My own bald Fortune lifts me by the hair.Woe’s me! woe’s me! In Folly’s mailboxStill laughs the postcard, Hope:Your uncle in AustraliaHas died and you are Pope,For many a soul has entertainedA Mailman unawares —And as you cry, Impossible,A step is on the stairs.One keeps getting the same dreamDelayed, marked “Payment Due,“The bill that one has paidDelayed, marked “Payment Due” —Twice a day, in rotting mailbox,The white grubs are new:And Faith, once more, is mineFaithfully, but CharityWrites hopefully about a newAsylum — but Hope is as good as new.Woe’s me! woe’s me! In Folly’s mailboxStill laughs the postcard, Hope:Your uncle in AustraliaHas died and you are Pope,For many a soul has entertainedA mailman unawares —And as you cry, Impossible,A step is on the stairs.

The World Is Everything that Is the Case. Selected Poems (1955)