The beauty of unpublished verse
is like the beauty of a root
bereft of blossoms of repute
because it suffers from a curse
and never was allowed to flower,
though always ready to uncoil -
remaining ever under soil,
a beauty lacking flower power.
Inspired by 'If I Die Young' by Fernando Pessoa ('Fernando Pessoa & Co: Selected Poems, ' edited and translated from the Portuguese by Richard Zenith, Grove Press) , reviewed in The Los Angeles Times, January 10,1999, by Lindsay Waters, executive editor for humanities at Harvard University Press. The second verse of 'If I Die Young':
Even if my verses are never published,
They will have their beauty, if they're beautiful.
But they cannot be beautiful and remain unpublished,
Because their roots may be hidden in the ground
But their flowers flower in the open air for all to see.
It must be so. Nothing can prevent it.
Pessoa said: 'How can an age understand or appreciate what is, by definition, above it? '
1/10/99
gershon hepner
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/beauty-of-unpublished-verse/
