twitter: @eugenio_fouz
I am not very keen on anthology books, however on this occasion I ´ve got this bilingual anthology with a selection of William Carlos Williams´s poetry. I was hit by the one under the title “The Waitress“.
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Poems (1922-1928)
William Carlos Williams
The Waitress
“No wit (and none needed) but
the silence if her ways, grey eyes in
a depth of black lashes-
The eyes look and the look falls
There is no way, no way. So close
one may feel the warmth of the cheek and yet there is
no way.
The benefits of poverty are a roughened skin
of the hands, the broken
knuckles, the stained wrist
Serious. Not as the others.
All the rest are liars, all but you.
Wait on us.
Wait on us, the hair held back practically
by a net, close behind the ears, at the sides of
the head. But the eyes-
but the mouth, lightly
(quickly)
touched with rouge.
The black dress makes the hair dark, strangely
enough, and the white dress makes it light.
There is a mole under the jaw, low under
the right ear-
And what arms!
The glassruby ring
on the fourth finger of the left hand.
-and the movements
under the scant dress as the weight of the tray
makes the hips shift forward slightly in lifting
and beginning to walk-
The Nominating Committee presents the
resolutions, etc. etc. etc. All those
in favor signify by saying, Aye. Contrariminded,
No.
Carried.
And aye, and aye, and aye!
And the way the bell-hop runs downstairs:
ta tuck a
ta tuck a
ta tuck a
ta tuck a
ta tuck a
and the gulls in the open window screaming over
the slow break of the cold waves-
O unlit candle with the soft white
plume, Sunbeam Finest Safety Matches all
together on a little box-
And the reflections of both in
the mirror and the reflection of the hand, writing
writing-
Speak to me of her!
-and nobody else and nothing else
in the whole city, not an electric sign of shifting
colors, fourfoot daisies and acanthus fronds going
from red to orange, green to blue-forty feet
across-
Wait on us, wait
on us with your momentary beauty to be enjoyed
by none of us. Neither by you, certainly,
nor by me.”
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See, download and print the poem here:
or try to borrow the book from the library as I did a week ago
[Public Library, Av Rey Juan Carlos I, 17.- Murcia; @brmu]
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