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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
WE'RE EXTREMELY FORTUNATE, by WISLAWA SZYMBORSKA Poem Explanation Poet Analysis Poet's Biography
First Line: We're extremely fortunate / not to know precisely
Subject(s): Earth; World
First Line: We're extremely fortunate / not to know precisely
Subject(s): Earth; World
We're extremely fortunate
not to know precisely
the kind of world we live in.
One would have
to live a long, long time,
unquestionably longer
than the world itself.
Get to know other worlds
if only for comparison.
Rise above the flesh,
which only really knows
how to obstruct
and make trouble.
For the sake of research,
the big picture
and definitive conclusions,
one would have to transcend time,
in which everything scurries and whirls.
From that perspective,
one might as well bid farewell
to incidents and details.
The counting of weekdays
would inevitably seem to be
a senseless activity;
dropping letters in the mailbox
a whim of foolish youth;
the sign "No Walking on the Grass"
a symptom of lunacy
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SOPHISTICATION by CONRAD AIKEN
I SEE CHILE IN MY REARVIEW MIRROR by AGHA SHAHID ALI
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THE EARTH IS A LIVING THING by LUCILLE CLIFTON
ON DEATH, WITHOUT EXAGGERATION by WISLAWA SZYMBORSKA