2 poems by John Alfred Spender whose nephew was Stephen Spender.


ME

Yesterday I woke untimely
At five a.m.
But seizing the opportunity
I reflected on ME,
ME the mysterious, ME the profound,
Melancholy incarnate, destruction personified,
Joy of all joys—ME.

Plangent nouns and verbs
Ululate within ME
Saying release us or you burst.
I feel the grey cortex of the brain
Becoming red,
I see red, the whole of ME is red,
The all-red ME.

From the window I see clouds,
Clouds chasing clouds, over hills,
They are very like whales, wombats, turtles, frogs and mice,
So I say to myself, and the imagery wells up
Till I am breathless in pursuing it.
But they are all bits of ME,
ME the universal, ME the all-absorbing;
You are a bit of ME,
But I am not a bit of you,
The miracle of ME


YOU

Ectoplasmic projection of ME
Chimera phantasmal,
I see through you!
Through your heart, viscera, lungs, liver, kidneys, pituitary gland and alleged brains,
Through your complexes, inhibitions, reflexes, reactions, repercussions,
And all other subliminal contraptions and gadgets,
With which Freud, Yung, Pavlov, Croddeck, Kafka, Marx, Wikimitch and Pumperdohl,
Have replaced your obsolete soul.
I know them all, and I know you,
You! You! You!
Grinning façade, caricature of ME.
Taking air and earth that belong to ME,
There is only room in the world for ME.