I did not write a poem about you.
It did not compare you to beautiful
Objects in the natural environment.
I did not praise your wit and sensitivity
With clever suggestions and punning
Word play. I did not describe your face
In intricate, staring detail. I did not write
About the sure, clipped precision of your
Voice. I did not waste words trying to match
The brilliance of your words. I did not
Link you to writers, painters, music, stars.
I did not write a poem about you. And I
Certainly never imagined that I could love
You. I am a fool, but not that much of a fool.
I did not try to write a poem for you. This
Is merely my apology in case I ever do.
——
Cyril Victor Hurk (18th February 1869 – 21st April 1933) was a British poet, essayist, and novelist. He is commonly considered a modernist poet, although he wrote in free verse a decade or more before Eliot or Pound came to prominence, and his career in poetry only came after he had been an office clerk from many years, writing a secret “poet’s notebook” in his leisure time. His verse is in some ways indebted to second generation romanticism, even though he rejected the Edwardian mannerisms of his contemporaries. He wrote of his bisexuality, but he rejected offers of friendship from Wilde and his circle. His published poetry is largely concerned with finding ways to impress a Russian emigre, Vasilina Orlova, whom he met in Hyde Park at a suffragette rally in 1911.