I Cannot Help but Be What I Would Not

Subscribe to this site on Substack

Subscribe to this site on YouTube

Subscribe to this site on Medium

Follow this site on Facebook

Follow this site on Instagram

Hear me read
the poem as
an MP3 file.

Watch me read
the poem as
a YouTube video.

Video Music:
Subdivision of the Masses.
By Philipp Weigl.
Performed by Philipp Weigl
at the Free Music Archive
under an Attribution License.

Alpha List

Poems About
Miscarriage
and Stillbirth

Sonnets

About This
Site

Poems for
Free

Copyright by
Nicholas Gordon

I cannot help but be what I would not:
A river raging reckless through our love;
But anger is the closest thing I've got
To what far more aggrieved must in me move.
I know quite well that I'm not being fair:
You could not help but be untimely gone.
But unlike you, I could not be but there
To feel our child go dead within my womb.
How you are like the wind, and I the earth
That bears the seed you scatter on your way!
Mine alone the brutal joys of birth;
Yours alone the choice to go or stay.
Despite our love, despite your sympathy,
I know that I in this alone must be.

Copyright by Nicholas Gordon. Free for personal or non-commercial use.

Video Music: Subdivision of the Masses. By Philipp Weigl.
Performed by Philipp Weigl
at the Free Music Archive under an Attribution License.



[about this site] [poems for free] [poem of the week]
[site policy] [about me] [links]