Do you know you are comical, little worm?
How you double yourself up and wave your head,
And then stretch out and double up again,
All after a little food.
Do you know you have a long, strange name, little worm?
I will not tell you what it is.
That is for men of learning.
You—and God—do not care about such things.
WHAT MAKES A POEM?
You would wave about and double up just as much, and be just as futile, with it as without it.
Why do you crawl about on the top of that post, little worm?
It should have been a tree, eh? with green leaves for eating.
But it isn't, and you have crawled about it all day, looking for a new brown branch, or a green leaf.
Do you know anything about tears, little worm?
Or take McCarthy's lines to the honey bee:
"Poor desolate betrayer of Pan's trust,
Who turned from mating and the sweets thereof,
To make of labor an eternal lust,
And with pale thrift destroy the red of love,
The curse of Pan has sworn your destiny.
Unloving, unbeloved, you go your way
Toiling forever, and unwittingly
You bear love's precious burden every day
From flower to flower (for your blasphemy),
Poor eunuch, making flower lovers gay."
Or this:
GODLINESS
I know a man who says
That he gets godliness out of a book.