The sonnet sequence, "My Human Disguise," of 600 ekphrastic poems, was begun February 2011 and completed January 15, 2022. It can be found beginning with the January 20, 2022 post and working backwards. Going forward are 20 poems called "Terzata," beginning on January 27, 2022. Thirty more Terzata can be found among the links on the right. A new series of dramatic monologues follows on the blog roll, followed by a series of formal poems, each based on a single word.
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Thursday, May 3, 2012
That Which I Should Have Done I Did Not Do (Ivan Albright)
#63
Or, to say, we most regret the undone thing.
The outer door and not the inner going out,
Closes off all we might hide within ourselves,
What is dust, what is old beyond enduring,
What we know too well and know nothing about,
Rooms full of stripped beds and empty shelves.
We opened this door at least ten thousand times
And only once return to find a funeral wreath.
A lady's little finger holds a purple handkerchief,
As she presses the button to silenced door chimes.
Our desires, like roses, still retain a hint of red,
Memories, like lilies, are blown, sapped, and gray.
The lady beseeches, "It's not too late. Come away!"
The door says do not die before you're dead.