that bird only sings when sad

Decline of Values

wwnorton:

I’m reading a B.A. thesis
on the decline of values. Logically,
falling implies a height from which
to fall, and who’s that stupid?

Life is neither up nor down, and still less
in between. Life has no idea
of up and down, fullness and void, before
and after. And knows zip about the present.

Tear up your pages, ditch them in the sewer,
abandon your degree and you can brag
that you were momentarily alive (maybe).

Eugenio Montale, from The Collected Poems