Papyrus (Ezra Pound)

I am tired and was at first relieved that today's poem by Ezra Pound was so immediate.

The whole thing, title included, is 9 syllables long. It's indecipherable, but when I Googled the last word "gongula" (since it brought no image to mind) I learned that the three words that makes up this poem are from a poem by Sappho.

Knowing that one fact about the poem gives enough context to see why this little bit counts as poetry. It's an homage and historical and the three words sum all I need to know about Gongula (a person, apparently) - the longing, the hope contained in Spring, the fragility of papyrus. From these I can get a sense of who he may of been; I get a sense of Sappho's original poem; and I get a sense of what Ezra Pound's is doing.

Poetry is all about compression. Waste no words. Perhaps, then this 3 word poemlet is as complete as need-be.

Favorite line: "Too long . . . . . ."

Too long . . . . . .