Dana Gioia: Litanei

This is a litany of lost things,
a canon of possessions dispossessed,
a photograph, an old address, a key.
It is a list of words to memorize
or to forget – of amo, amas, amat,
the conjugations of a dead tongue
in which the final sentence has been spoken.

(...)

This is a litany to earth and ashes,
to the dust of roads and vacant rooms,
to the fine silt circling in a shaft of sun,
settling indifferently on books and beds.
This is a prayer to praise what we become,
"Dust thou art, to dust thou shalt return."
Savor its taste - the bitterness of earth and ashes.

(...)

[Zwei wichtige Essays von Dana Gioia, "Why Poetry Matters" (Atlantic Monthly, 1991) und "Disappearing Ink: Poetry at the End of Print Culture" (Hudson Review, 2003) gibt es online.]