Howard Nemerov “The Revised Version”
Howard Nemerov served as the US Poet Laureate twice: from 1963 to 1964 and from 1988 to 1990. Just one year prior to his second term, the fall 1987 issue of the Prairie Schooner featured his poem “The Revised Version.” During that autumn, Lincoln experienced its 6th-coldest October, but in keeping with the fiery theme of “The Revised Version,” 1987 on the whole ended up as Lincoln’s 7th-hottest year.
by Tory Clower
Howard Nemerov
The Revised Version
The common curse forbidden to the young
When we were young – our grownups got it wrong,
Maybe from reading in a bad translation;
It wasn’t so much a curse as an invitation
To the great world’s permanent floating cocktail bash –
The scent, the smoke, the burning, and the ash.
A grownup in my turn I say the spell:
It isn’t Go to Hell, it’s Come to Hell.