The beauty of unpublished verse <br />is like the beauty of a root <br />bereft of blossoms of repute <br />because it suffers from a curse <br />and never was allowed to flower, <br />though always ready to uncoil - <br />remaining ever under soil, <br />a beauty lacking flower power. <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />Inspired by 'If I Die Young' by Fernando Pessoa ('Fernando Pessoa & Co: Selected Poems, ' edited and translated from the Portuguese by Richard Zenith, Grove Press) , reviewed in The Los Angeles Times, January 10,1999, by Lindsay Waters, executive editor for humanities at Harvard University Press. The second verse of 'If I Die Young': <br /> <br />Even if my verses are never published, <br />They will have their beauty, if they're beautiful. <br />But they cannot be beautiful and remain unpublished, <br />Because their roots may be hidden in the ground <br />But their flowers flower in the open air for all to see. <br />It must be so. Nothing can prevent it. <br /> <br />Pessoa said: 'How can an age understand or appreciate what is, by definition, above it? ' <br /> <br /> <br />1/10/99<br /><br />gershon hepner<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/beauty-of-unpublished-verse/
