april 4 {the poem project}

4.

from BURNT NORTON
Time present and time past
Are both perhaps present in time future,
And time future contained in time past.
If all time is eternally present
All time is unredeemable.
What might have been in an abstraction
Remaining a perpetual possibility
Only in a world of speculation.
What might have been and what has been
Point to one end, which is always present.
Footfalls echo in memory
Down the passage which we did not take
Towards the door we never opened
Into the rose-garden.
T.S. Eliot

T.S. Eliot is one of my favorite poets. “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” is also a contender for my favorite poem. He has a wonderful way of phrasing and spinning images. I studied his poetry first in 9th grade and read Burnt Norton for the first time, which is partly his returning to his homeland of England (he was born in St. Louis but eventually became a British citizen). Of course I was originally attracted to his poems from Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats in the musical CATS (I can still sing “Jellicle Songs for Jellicle Cats” all the way through). This fragment is ethereal and deeply meaningful. I think I used it as an introduction to one of my Doctor Who stories, for obvious reasons.