Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


WHEN WE SAY GOODBYE by THOMAS MCGRATH

First Line: IT IS NOT BECAUSE WE ARE GOING
Last Line: As we enter the intolerable sunlight that never grows old or kind
Subject(s): FAREWELL; SUN; PARTING;

It is not because we are going --
Though the sea may begin at the doorstep, though the highway
May already have come to rest in our front rooms . . .

It is because, beyond distance, or enterprise
And beyond the lies and surprises of the wide and various worlds,
Beyond the flower and the bird and the little boy with his large questions
We notice our shadows:
Going . . .
-- slowly, but going,
In slightly different directions --
Their speeds increasing --
Growing shorter, shorter
As we enter the intolerable sunlight that never grows old or kind.


Used with the permission of Copper Canyon Press, P.O. Box 271, Port Townsend, WA
98368-0271, www.cc.press.org



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