This poem is taken from PN Review 52, Volume 13 Number 2, November - December 1986.

the beautiful picture

Ernst Jandl

withhold the human from your beautiful picture
so that you can withhold the tears for which
all human beings call; withhold the very trace:
let no path mark firm passage, no field recall bread
no forest, house or wardrobe, no stone a wall
no spring their drinking, no pond no lake no sea
a swimmer, boat, oar, sail or navigation
no rock a climber, not one little cloud
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