Keith Douglas, 1920-1944.
Remember me when I am dead
and simplify me when I'm dead.
As the processes of earth
strip off the colour and the skin
take the brown hair and blue eye
and leave me simpler than at birth
when hairless I came howling in
as the moon came in the cold sky.
Of my skeleton perhaps
so stripped, a learned man will say
'He was of such a type and intelligence,' no more.
Thus when in a year collapse
particular memories, you may
deduce, from the long pain I bore
the opinions I held, who was my foe
and what I left, even my appearance
but incidents will be no guide.
Time's wrong-way telescope will show
a minute man ten years hence
and by distance simplified.
Through that lens see if I seem
substance or nothing: of the world
deserving mention or charitable oblivion
not by momentary spleen
or love into decision hurled
leisurely arrive at an opinion.
Remember me when I am dead
and simplify me when I'm dead.
Thanks for the Douglas lead. I found this -I'm guessing unfinished- poem, Actors Waiting In The Wings Of Europe.
Actors waiting in the wings of Europe
we already watch the lights on the stage
and listen to the colossal overture begin.
For us entering at the height of the din
it will be hard to hear our thoughts, hard to gauge
how much our conduct owes to fear or fury.
Everyone, I suppose, will use these minutes
to look back, to hear music and recall
what we were doing and saying that year
during our last few months as people, near
the sucking mouth of the day that swallowed us all
into the stomach of a war. Now we are in it
and no more people, just little pieces of food
swirling in an uncomfortable digestive journey,
what we said and did then has a slightly
fairytale quality. There is an excitement
in seeing our ghosts wandering
Yes, it's unfinished.
There's an autograph draft on paper with the cancelled heading Bete Noire. (Douglas was trying unsuccessfully to write a longer poem called Bete Noire.)
As he wrote 'Actors waiting...' in the Spring [probably March] of 1944, he was back in England after the experience of battle in North Africa.
He was anticipating going back to war, this time in France. He was killed on June 9th.
Posted by: Tom Deveson at November 11, 2005 12:07 PMThx. Forgive my being reminded of Chris Hedges. I've loaned out War is a Force that Gives us Meaning, hence can't quote it directly, but he similarly thinks of war as a process inevitably the same that has the same effects on soldier and civilian populations of the "good" side as on any other side that may be.
Posted by: Martha Bridegam at November 11, 2005 09:55 PMCan anyone tell me why my contribution to this thread was deleted?
Posted by: Sir M at November 17, 2005 01:20 AMProbably.
Posted by: Alan Allport at November 17, 2005 03:40 AM