National Poetry Day

So here is one by John Berryman. Presume it is about how children lose their innocence, yet never completely (as poet reminds himself, see the last line). Adults on the other hand, through accumulated experience, gain the ability to get beyond themselves and see things with a more equivocal eye. Something like that, anyway.

The Ball Poem

What is the boy now, who has lost his ball,
What, what is he to do? I saw it go
Merrily bouncing, down the street, and then
Merrily over - there it is in the water!
No use to say 'O there are other balls':
An ultimate shaking grief fixes the boy
As he stands rigid, trembling, staring down
All his young days into the harbour where
His ball went. I would not intrude on him,
A dime, another ball, is worthless. Now
He senses first responsibility
In a world of possessions. People will take balls
Balls will be lost always, little boy,
And no one buys a ball back. Money is external.
He is learning, well behind his desperate eyes
The epistemology of loss, how to stand up
Knowing what every man must one day know
And must know many days, how to stand up.
And gradually light returns to the street,
A whistle blows, the ball is out of sight,
Soon part of me will explore the deep and dark
Floor of the harbour... I am everywhere,
I suffer and move, my mind and my heart move
With all that move me, under the water
Or whistling. I am not a little boy.