Refugee Blues

W.H. Auden

—Anonymous Photo

REFUGEE BLUES
—W.H. Auden (1907-1973)

Say this city has ten million souls,
Some are living in mansions, some are living in holes:
Yet there's no place for us, my dear, yet there's no place for us.

Once we had a country and we thought it fair,
Look in the atlas and you'll find it there:
We cannot go there now, my dear, we cannot go there now.

In the village churchyard there grows an old yew,
Every spring it blossoms anew:
Old passports can't do that, my dear, old passports can't do that.

The consul banged the table and said,
"If you've got no passport you're officially dead":
But we are still alive, my dear, but we are still alive.

Went to a committee; they offered me a chair;
Asked me politely to return next year:
But where shall we go to-day, my dear, but where shall we go to-day?

Came to a public meeting; the speaker got up and said;
"If we let them in, they will steal our daily bread":
He was talking of you and me, my dear, he was talking of you and me.

Thought I heard the thunder rumbling in the sky;
It was Hitler over Europe, saying, "They must die":
O we were in his mind, my dear, O we were in his mind.

Saw a poodle in a jacket fastened with a pin,
Saw a door opened and a cat let in:
But they weren't German Jews, my dear, but they weren't German Jews.

Went down the harbour and stood upon the quay,
Saw the fish swimming as if they were free:
Only ten feet away, my dear, only ten feet away.

Walked through a wood, saw the birds in the trees;
They had no politicians and sang at their ease:
They weren't the human race, my dear, they weren't the human race.

Dreamed I saw a building with a thousand floors,
A thousand windows and a thousand doors:
Not one of them was ours, my dear, not one of them was ours.

Stood on a great plain in the falling snow;
Ten thousand soldiers marched to and fro:
Looking for you and me, my dear, looking for you and me.

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Today’s LittleNip:

A poet can write about a man slaying a dragon, but not about a man pushing a button that releases a bomb

—W.H. Auden

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To hear this poem read aloud, go to www.poemhunter.com/poem/refugee-blues/.
For more about Auden, go to www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/w-h-auden/.

Our thanks to Michelle Kunert of Sacramento for sending us this Auden poem, which seems very timely these days. She also sends some links about U.S. Presidents who have written poetry in the past:
 

mentalfloss.com/article/58186/9-poems-penned-presidents
www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/prespoetry/
www.theparisreview.org/blog/2015/02/16/four-poems-by-richard-milhous-nixon/

Thanks, Michelle!

—Medusa, reminding you that Stockton Spoken Word Poet Brandon Leake will be featured in Placerville tonight, 6:30pm, at Good Earth Movement Poetry Night on Main Street. Scroll down to the blue column (under the green column at the right) for info about this and other upcoming poetry events in our area—and note that more may be added at the last minute.

 House in Poland

(Celebrate Poetry!)

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