The will to sadness

“la volonté de tristesse”—drawing by Alejandra Pizarnik (from The Galloping Hour: French Poems)

one ought to remain at least
partially buried at all times

let lost pieces of oneself
get eaten by opossums

one must learn to read the paper
upside-down and backwards

give names to the flies
but not to the joyful spider

and when one is invited to dance
one must not cling as if drowning

one who is oneself
a sort of small salt lake

one must follow decorum
as one follows the weather

everything one knows about rhythm
one learned from the rain

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