Uploaded on July 24, 2011
… “Ah, my friend, you do not know, you do not know
What life is, you who hold it in your hands”;
(Slowly twisting the lilac stalks)
“You let it flow from you, you let it flow,
And youth is cruel, and has no remorse
And smiles at situations which it cannot see.”
I smile, of course,
And go on drinking tea. …
—T.S. Eliot
T.S. Eliot: The Complete Poems and Plays 1909-1950
07.24.2023: I still have two or three of those cups, which belonged to my mother. While I still love much of Eliot’s poetry, I read it differently. This excerpt, for instance: I used to see good manners; now I see manipulation.