Further Notice

I can't live in this world 
And I refuse to kill myself 
Or let you kill me 

The dill plant lives, the airplane 
My alarm clock, this ink 
I won't go away 

I shall be myself—
Free, a genius, an embarrassment 
Like the Indian, the buffalo 

Like Yellowstone National Park. 

From The Collected Poems of Philip Whalen by Philip Whalen. Copyright © 2008 by Philip Whalen. Published by Wesleyan University Press. Used by permission of the publisher. All rights reserved.