Address to an Undergraduate Society
The Chairman forgets my name. I address iliern. Half male, half female, one clergyman. Few beards. The usual exhibitionist In velvet or what-have-you appears to be absent. Surely I'm talking down to these bright ones Who must know at least as much as I do? But there are no incidents; no complaints. A nice girl asks one question about symbols. A crew-cut politely doesn't share my views. Why should he? And what, anyhow, Is all this about? I form no impression. —No, can't you see? The poet isn't sensitive To human beings. I see a woman as, Forgive me, a woman; a man as a voice Expressing general ideas or limericks. But fifty people have assembled (whether for Disappointment or, not is fairly irrelevant) To look for something for which the young and poets Alone retain their keenness. Something, cornmeal Or revelation, on the edge of that great light Where joy and knowledge meet, ignite And blaze so high that such tears start As blur the vision of the heart. Hunt through those tears into yet clearer sight : Art in a crystal air, an essence of (Let's not be too cornplicated)—love.
ROBERT OONQUIS
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