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.