Suppose in Perfect Reason (Griffin)
Suppose in Perfect Reason, by Howard Griffin (1915-1975)
Suppose in perfect reason
you want to die, you want earnestly
knowing for years the meaning
you want above all to die —
recall the eager, the blonde
beavers who died in shelterhalves
of steel or ground like coral
to reefs where there was no choice.
Life defines the power to choose
and when you cut the thread
you are chosen, you become
a total, a togetherness.
More difficult to go on
bowlining silk-end
to end with awkward hand.
If for any cause you want to die
recall the dead who wanted simply
to live and who had every reason
to go on yet who died
for no accurate reason that you
could name. The pure line
is never poetry
but in walking down the street
to the store. — Wrong or right
they could not be colder dead
whatever side of the fence
the beast is. They eat
out of our mouths, they gaze
through our eyes that look
at a plant. If for any cause
you want profoundly to die,
remember the dead. Re-
collect the dead.
Recall the finished dead.