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Enough: A Poem

Poor Catullus, end this idiocy;
put a full stop to the story. It’s all over.
True, you had days of blinding sunshine
when she led you time and time again
exactly where you wanted to go,
she, Clodia, the girl you loved
more than any girl shall ever be loved (by you) again.
In those days and in those places
wonderful things were done,
things to make the gods smile,
marvellous things that were entirely mutual.
Days of sunshine, days of roses.
Now she doesn’t want it any more.
You’ve got to put it behind you even if it breaks you.
Stop running after her; you won’t catch her now.
Don’t go on living in such misery.
Try to see this through.
Goodbye, girlfriend. Catullus will not budge,
he won’t beg for anything any more.
But you’ll be sorry, Clodia, when you’re not asked for.
I could pity you. What wretched leftover life will you have ?
Who will come to see you now? Who’ll be besotted by your beauty?
Who will love you now? Who will you “belong” to?
Who will you kiss? Whose lips nibble?
Enough Catullus. You’re going to see this through.
                                              after Catullus 8, Miser Catulle, desinas ineptire
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Harry Eyres has become one of the most eloquent advocates of the worldwide Slow movement. Having worked for leading newspapers and magazines as a theatre critic, wine writer and poetry editor, in 2004 he created the Slow Lane column in FT Weekend. Slow Lane (which ran until 2015) proposed a pause for thoughtful enjoyment of the often uncostly and uncostable pleasures and values which make life worth living. He has published a volume of poetry, Hotel Eliseo (Hearing Eye): Vernon Scannell praised it in the Sunday Telegraph as “an enjoyable collection of consistent accomplishment,” describing Eyres as “a mature poet…who has forged a style, pared down, cleanly chiselled, and…admirably suited to his purposes.” He gives regular poetry readings at various venues in London including The Poetry Café. Eyres is also the author of The Beginner’s Guide to Plato’s The Republic (Hodder & Stoughton), the memoir Horace and Me: Life Lessons from an Ancient Poet (Bloomsbury and Farrar, Straus and Giroux: short-listed for the PEN/Ackerley Prize in 2014), and several books on wine. From 2012-5 he was a Senior Fellow at the European Space Policy Institute in Vienna: out of this work came Seeing Our Planet Whole: A Cultural and Ethical View of Earth Observation (Springer). He lives in London, writes about wine (he is wine columnist for Country Life magazine, and a columnist for The World of Fine Wine), culture and politics (for The New Statesman) and enjoys playing tennis and the piano.

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