Maude Uschold - 2 Short Poems (1926-1935)

Forgotten Poems #136

   
              —: Departure :—

       Let me go, not slowly
       As one smothers in a cavern,
       Waiting doom
       Like the sad slow creeping
       Of northern dawn;
       But let me drop quickly
       Like tropic night,
       Like one breathless backward
       Step from a cliff.
    

    
              —: All Little Things :—

       A little song of birds at summer dawning;
       A little gust of tears when journey end;
       A little happiness, a little heartache;
       A little tenderness from friend to friend.

       A little wind that wakes the leaves at morning;
       A little rain that patterns in the dust;
       A little day that we may share together,
       Then go again our way as all we must.

       A little love that soon shall be forgotten,
       That being mortal, scarce will last the day;
       All little—O speak, declare against it
       A little word, scarce knowing what to say.
    

Maude Uschold (p. 1921-35, etc.) was a poet and “journalist from Lacon, Illinois.” (New Mexico Quarterly, 1935) Also a painter: “Uschold has some water-color paintings on exhibition…. [she] has more than ordinary talent and here’s hoping that she may win the prize.” (Lacon Home Journal, 1921) Little else is known of her life, beyond the poems above and these brief notes.

   
                                   Death Ballad
            —: After Maude Uschold & John Cage :—
                                    by Dick Whyte

     when death is ready
     to take me
     i will laugh loud
     and long:
     not because i am ready to go—

     (i will never be ready to go!)

     big moon
     will you be my guide?
     with your frayed blanket
     light?

     (i will never be ready to go!)

     stars too,
     with a glowing so old
     they sing

     (i will never be ready to go!)

     in the belly of time
     laughter is always

     (i will never be ready to go!)

     preferable to tears
   

NOTE: The final few lines reference an interview and performance John Cage gave on television in January, 1960 which has always stayed with me—his way of being seems so gentle and loving—and remains an endless source of inspiration to me in my own approach to poetry and life: “I have nothing to say and I am saying it and that is poetry as I need it.” (John Cage)

Forgotten Poems & Prints: a living anthology of obscure and out-of-print short poems & prints from the late-1800s and early-1900s.

---

┌ BOOK OF LOST RHYMES ┐

---

┌ MORE POEMS ABOUT DEATH ┐

---

┌ MORE POEMS ABOUT BIRDS ┐

---

┌ MORE POEMS ABOUT SUMMER ┐