I am a Romantic with a sense of irony

One of my favorite poets died the other day. Montreal's Irving Layton (no relation to the NDP's Jack Layton) was a friend of my other favorite poets: Al Purdy and Leonard Cohen. He was also a Political Science professor at my university Sir George Williams College (now Concordia University). I personally like alot of his poems because they are witty, easily accessible, political and very enjoyable.

A poem from his book of love poems.

FAREWELL

She's gone. The one I swore up and down
to give a Greek villa and six children
if she married me, a trip around the world
to the moon, Mars, Venus
anywhere so that I could be with her
so great was the fire in my head.
in the sleeved arms that ached to hold her.

She's gone. The one that made me turn
restlessly from side to side each
sleepless night, thinking of her cool naked limbs
curled up on the love stained sheets,
her red lips and long black lashes,
her smiles, her pouts, her sexy gestures,
the perfection of her small feet.

She's gone, whose laughter made me forget
the decorum of grey hairs,
children, friends, literary foes
the importance of being Trudeau, Pompidou, Spiro Agnew
or even the illustrious dust of Uncle Ho.
Let the whole world be dammed, I said
and let the dead marry off the dead.

She's gone in whose arms I rose
resurrected after the third lay;
peace and wild joy and laughter were mine
for awhile but she's gone, gone in a bus
that with a snort has taken her far away
while the grey dust that settles over me
swirls and twirls like the ghost of an empty day.