It is like any other work of art.
It is and never can be changed.
Behind everything there is always
The unknown unwanted life.

(Randall Jarrell (1914-1965), U.S. poet, critic. The Orient Express (l. 32-35). . . The Complete Poems [Randall Jarrell]. (1969; repr. 1989) Farrar, Straus and Giroux.)

I woke to black flak and the nightmare fighters.
When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose.

(Randall Jarrell (1914-1965), U.S. poet, critic. The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner (l. 4-5). . . The Complete Poems [Randall Jarrell]. (1969; repr. 1989) Farrar, Straus and Giroux.)

The world goes by my cage and never sees me.

(Randall Jarrell (1914-1965), U.S. poet, critic. The Woman at the Washington Zoo (l. 20). . . The Complete Poems [Randall Jarrell]. (1969; repr. 1989) Farrar, Straus and Giroux.)

the rusty
Pump pumps over your sweating face the clear
Water, cold, so cold! you cup your hands
And gulp from them the dailiness of life.

(Randall Jarrell (1914-1965), U.S. poet, critic. Well Water (l. 10-13). . . The Complete Poems [Randall Jarrell]. (1969; repr. 1989) Farrar, Straus and Giroux.)

A filmy trash
Litters the black woods with the death
Of men; and one last breath

Curls from the monstrous chimney. . . .

(Randall Jarrell (1914-1965), U.S. poet, critic. A Camp in the Prussian Forest (l. 30-33). . . The Complete Poems [Randall Jarrell]. (1969; repr. 1989) Farrar, Straus and Giroux.)

One year
They sent a million here:
Here men were drunk like water, burnt like wood.
The fat of good
And evil, the breast's star of hope
Were rendered into soap.

(Randall Jarrell (1914-1965), U.S. poet, critic. A Camp in the Prussian Forest (l. 15-20). . . The Complete Poems [Randall Jarrell]. (1969; repr. 1989) Farrar, Straus and Giroux.)

The soul has no assignments, neither cooks
Nor referees: it wastes its time.
It wastes its time.

(Randall Jarrell (1914-1965), U.S. poet, critic. A Girl in a Library (l. 33-35). . . The Complete Poems [Randall Jarrell]. (1969; repr. 1989) Farrar, Straus and Giroux.)

An object among dreams, you sit here with your shoes off
And curl your legs up under you;

(Randall Jarrell (1914-1965), U.S. poet, critic. A Girl in a Library (l. 1-2). . . The Complete Poems [Randall Jarrell]. (1969; repr. 1989) Farrar, Straus and Giroux.)

The firelight of a long, blind, dreaming story
Lingers upon your lips; and I have seen
Firm, fixed forever in your closing eyes,
The Corn King beckoning to his Spring Queen.

(Randall Jarrell (1914-1965), U.S. poet, critic. A Girl in a Library (l. 104-107). . . The Complete Poems [Randall Jarrell]. (1969; repr. 1989) Farrar, Straus and Giroux.)

The blind date that has stood you up: your life.

(Randall Jarrell (1914-1965), U.S. poet. A Girl in a Library (l. 87). . . The Complete Poems [Randall Jarrell]. (1969; repr. 1989) Farrar, Straus and Giroux.)