retirement
retirement
by denis johnson
i would like to be just an old man with my gin,
retiring even from these leaves into
my big, gradual silence beyond the wood
and it will be good,
wife, because i have pointed to you,
and you have become real, within
this darker stillness my eyes grow too wide
it must be that seeing you in the trees
becoming softer than i ever dreamed
has made it all seem
a multitude of nonsense, all the seas,
the planets, all i wrote. i lied,
i swear to you i lied, becoming old and so
very drunk, when i did not lie to you.
This is good stuff. I like Denis’ poetry more than his fiction. Did he actually submit to H & H or was this a editors choice from one of his books?
no, he didnt submit. i pulled the poem from something i was reading. felt like it might be a good read today.
its an excellent read for any day