Take Down This Book

When you are old, take down this book of Yeats
And throw it in the garbage. Hart Crane, too.
Take Browning, book and ring, the motley crew
Of Symbolistes, Sam Beckett and his mates,
The Sitwells on their grand Sheffield estates,
John Donne, Ann Donne, and flush them down the loo.
Take Eliot and Ezra Pound with you
When Shakespeare sighs and the balloon inflates.

When you were young, contemporary verse
Was all you wanted, something shiny, bright,
Original, and stark, shining a light
In corners of the dusty room. You'd curse,
Intending disrespect. Now here's the hearse,
And all the old ones gather. It's a blight.