top of page
Writer's pictureJANE CLIFTON

Poem #7

May 6th

HELL

‘l’enfer, c’est les autres’

so this should be heaven

right

wrong, Jean Paul Sartre

we miss them like

hell

all those others

we need them

sociologically

philosophically

la vie existentielle

is all very well

when there’s choice

but without it

is boredom

a case of ennui

that can only be cured

by

la belle compagnie

social intercourse

two for tea.


See also poems read out loud at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9uLwxslE_VQ-fu-Dw6gdIA/playlists

Also https://www.amazon.com.au/Day-At-Time-Rhyme/dp/0648083861/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=A+Day+At+A+Time+In+Rhyme+Jane+Clifton&qid=1572053238&sr=8-1

46 views1 comment

Recent Posts

See All

Fathers' Day

BURWOOD 2   father in the lounge leg crooked up on one knee cup of tea four sugars more pile of biscuits sliced Genoa brown apple core...

Winter Sunset

these coconut-ice sunsets when the air is pink and crisp and still dessicated chill and you can’t wait to split some wood crunch...

War on Television

February 27th we are watching the war on television as if it were a show baby faces crying parents brothers sisters dying starving we are...

1 Comment


Eugene DeGeorge
May 07, 2020

Hey, Jane. Well, you have really outdone yourself on this one. Channeling a little TS Eliot, plus a little smack at Sartre. But I love the way you handled it. Yes, if "hell is other people" then we should be happy because we have to stay away from them. BUT we need other people or else we waste away. Great poem about the duality of life. One of my favorite themes. And keeping it SO contemporary. You have kicked it up a notch, Jane. You are in the zone.

Like
bottom of page