by Alexandra Naughton
(a cento after every Lennon-McCartney number 1 hit single and the 20 most anthologized poems in English according to Poetry Foundation)
darkling i listen;
and for many a time
i think i'm going to be sad
i think it's today
i have been half in love
with easeful death
it’s a steady job
nothin you can do
but you can learn
how to be you in time
as ever beneath
a waning moon was haunted
by woman wailing
for her demon-lover
and though she feels
as if she's in a play
she is anyway
and full-grown lambs
loud bleat from hilly bourn;
did he
who made the lamb
make thee?
now i need a place
to hide away
come live with me
and be my love
do i have to keep on
talking 'til i can't go on?
since none puts by
the curtain i have
drawn for you
but i
i can’t hide
i can’t hide
i can’t hide
i cannot look on thee
got to be good-looking
cuz he's so hard to see
i am a part of all
that i have met
when i’m home
everything seems to be right
my labor and my leisure too
i feel it now
i hope you feel it too
things fall apart;
the centre cannot hold
you say, why?
and i say, i don't know
small is the worth
of beauty from the light retired;
independence seems
to vanish in the haze
or bends with the remover
to remove
and i feel fine
in a full-hearted evensong
in tucson, arizona
for some california grass
though the sedge
is withered from the lake
and no birds sing
his gory visage
down the stream was sent
pride can hurt you too
i have seen the moment
of my greatness flicker
everybody tells me so
the trumpet of a prophecy
there will be an answer
vaster than empires
and more slow
death's second self
that seals up all in rest
i’ll always be true
marks of weakness
marks of woe
don't leave me waiting here
lead me to your door
****
Alexandra Naughton is a writer, publisher, and literary events producer based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She is the founder of Be About It Press, established in 2010, and the co-host of the Bring A Blanket reading series. She is the author of a memoir and several poetry collections including most recently Sick of Being Inside Myself via House of Vlad Press.