Breeding Lilacs ~ Wednesday, September 15, 2021

"Breeding Lilacs"

Imitate, Steal, Deface, Make Utterly Different

Belladonna, the Lady of the Rocks,

Reflecting light upon the table as

Exploring hands encounter no defense;

Enacted on this same divan or bed;

Dry bones can harm no one. / Only a cock

In a flash of lightning. Then a damp gust

nothing, / Looking into the heart of light,

Gathered far distant, over Himavant.

London Bridge is falling down falling down

Is your card, the drowned Phoenician Sailor,

Leaned out, leaning, hushing the room enclosed.

And we shall play a game of chess, / Pressing

crowds of people, walking round in a ring.

Shall I at least set my lands in order?

~ T. S. Eliot (from "The Waste Land")

“Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal; bad poets deface what they take, and good poets make it into something better, or at least something different. The good poet welds his theft into a whole of feeling which is unique, utterly different than that from which it is torn.”

~ T. S. Eliot (from "The Sacred Wood")