The Best Thing Anyone Ever Said About Paul Celan Poem by Shane McCrae

Today you will the say the any ever

best thing any ever anyone

Said about Paul Celan

The world is if it isn't does it matter isn't



waiting or it might be might as well

Be if it knew and some

People for some people the wait is mostly it's

a world in which the fact of Paul Celan



was and is always will have been and be

A fact and necessary living in such a world

is the far greater agony the wait is no

agony not compared to living in that world it is



Absurd to say he wouldn't Paul Celan would recognize it still

No person ever is naive

but populations are naive and always will be

even innocent


is the far greater agony

It is / More like a toothache

the pain of the wait for some

More like a pain in the hole from which

You even now prepare yourself to speak