Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, NO TIME, by EVA RIEHLE


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

NO TIME, by                    
First Line: There is no time to say the things
Last Line: But probably it's needed in the land.
Subject(s): Watches


There is no time to say the things
Our hearts would say;
Regimented in a regimented day
Our thoughts are locked,
Our words are cut and weighed --
So much about the weather and the wars,
So much about the price of bread --
A copied word about the current play,
A sad word -- ready-made, about the dead.

(I watch a sunset,
Yes, but watching me
There is a clock, inexorably paced --
My sunset watching is not free.
I sing a song,
But hearing me,
Some jealous duty turns a frowning face --
My singing is not done in liberty.)

But when an hour is unlocked from the chain
And given me to be with you,
Can my cramped wings, so used to being caged,
Lift me for just that hour into the blue?
Can I say then, with tongue that's free,
How beautiful you are -- how dear
The little smile you sometimes give to me?
And that your voice is music that will ring
Throughout my darkest midnight? Can I sing
That being with you is release from pain,
And that rare health lies in your clasping hand?

No -- I say it looks somewhat like rain,
But probably it's needed in the land.





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