Two moth poems

1. So over at Theatre of Found Sounds, my very dear friend Marc relates as his latest post the story of how he saved a butterfly from near-certain death at the jaws of his dog Sparky.

As I wrote to him, his story, in turn, made me think of the Robert Frost poem, "To A Moth Seen In Winter". It is one of my perennial favourites - Frost's own contemplation on saving a moth which had just flown into his hand, "warm from my pocket", on a cold winter's night. And essentially he realises he cannot save the moth, that it is not for him to do so:

... But go. You are right. My pity cannot help.
Go till you wet your pinions and are quenched.
You must be made more simply wise than I
To know the hand I stretch impulsively
Across the gulf of well-nigh everything
May reach to you, but cannot touch your fate.
I cannot touch your life, much less can save,
Who am tasked to save my own a little while.

2. Two nights ago, I was baking some fish in the oven. The timer rang, I turned off the heat, pulled on the oven glove and prepared to take out the food. But just at the instant I opened the oven door, a moth swooped by, scared the hell out of me, took a wrong left turn and ended up instantly fried on the plate.

This, then, brings up my second moth poem, and those of you who know me will guess it by now - don marquis's "the lesson of the moth" by archy:

...fire is beautiful
and we know that if we get
too close it will kill us
what does that matter
it is better to be happy
for a moment
and be burned up with beauty
than to live a long time
and be bored all the while...

and before i could argue him
out of his philosophy
he went and immolated himself
on a patent cigar lighter
i do not agree with him
myself i would rather have
half the happiness and twice
the longevity

but at the same time i wish
there was something i wanted
as badly as he wanted to fry himself

archy

Two moth poems, triggered by two different events. Both as contemplations of the deaths of moths (what is it about moths?!), but of their deaths as inspirations of life.