Jaybird in the Soul

Keith Douglas wrote, It sounds silly

To say work without hope, adding,

But it can be done. The context

Was war, which he didn’t expect

To survive and didn’t. Who knows

What greater common currency

The words of a soldier-poet

Might carry—working without hope

Haloes other connotations

In other contexts. But it seems

There’s a general usefulness

To dividing work done for ends,

That is, work that’s only called done

When some target’s been accomplished,

And work done without a target.

Work done without hope’s the best kind,

The kind in which doing the work

Is, while doing, the having done.