Writ On The Steps Of Puerto Rican Harlem - Gregory Corso

from Long Live Man

There’s a truth limits man

A truth prevents his going any farther

The world is changing

The world knows it’s changing

Heavy is the sorrow of the day

The old have the look of doom

The young mistake their fate in that look

That is truth

But it isn’t all truth

Life has meaning

And I do not know the meaning

Even when I felt it were meaningless

I hoped and prayed and sought a meaning

It wasn’t all frolic poesy

There were dues to pay

Summoning Death and God

I’d a wild dare to tackle Them

Death proved meaningless without Life

Yes the world is changing

But Death remains the same

It takes man away from Life

The only meaning he knows

And usually it is a sad business

This Death

I’d an innocence I’d a seriousness

I’d a humor save me from amateur philosophy

I am able to contradict my beliefs

I am able able

Because I want to know the meaning of everything

Yet sit I like a brokenness

Moaning: Oh what responsibility

I put on thee Gregory

Death and God

Hard hard it’s hard

I learned life were no dream

I learned truth deceived

Man is not God

Life is a century

Death an instant