Literary Advent Calendar | 23rd December

23RD DECEMBER
"Song" by Allen Ginsberg

This is the much happier Ginsberg that I think I said would appear. It's a great poem by a really great writer, and there are some wonderful phrases within it. "Be mad or chill, obsessed with angels or machines, the final wish is love." That is possibly the best line of any poem ever, it's awesome. So here it is, much longer than I remembered and superb all the way through. This Advent Calendar will be posted on the 25th (or at least, for the 25th) too, so there are two more poems to go!
  
The weight of the world
is love.
Under the burden
of solitude,
under the burden
of dissatisfaction

the weight,
the weight we carry
is love.

Who can deny?
In dreams
it touches
the body,
in thought
constructs
a miracle,
in imagination
anguishes
till born
in human--
looks out of the heart
burning with purity--
for the burden of life
is love,

but we carry the weight
wearily,
and so must rest
in the arms of love
at last,
must rest in the arms
of love.

No rest
without love,
no sleep
without dreams
of love--
be mad or chill
obsessed with angels
or machines,
the final wish
is love
--cannot be bitter,
cannot deny,
cannot withhold
if denied:

the weight is too heavy

--must give
for no return
as thought
is given
in solitude
in all the excellence
of its excess.

The warm bodies
shine together
in the darkness,
the hand moves
to the center
of the flesh,
the skin trembles
in happiness
and the soul comes
joyful to the eye--

yes, yes,
that's what
I wanted,
I always wanted,
I always wanted,
to return
to the body
where I was born