In this installment, Ken Cormier performs “The Fly” by William Blake. Cormier is the founding editor and producer of The Lumberyard, a radio magazine of poetry, prose, and music on WHUS in Storrs, CT. His first book, Balance Act, was published by Insomniac Press in 2000. He has released two CDs of original music, God Damn Doghouse and Radio-Bueno, with Elis Eil Records.

William Blake, “The Fly”

Little Fly
Thy summers play,
My thoughtless hand
Has brush'd away,

Am not I
A fly like thee?
Or art not thou
A man like me?

For I dance
And drink & sing;
Till some blind hand
Shall brush my wing.

If thought is life
And strength & breath;
And the want
Of thought is death;

Then am I
A happy fly,
If I live,
Or if I die.

Then am I
A happy fly,
If I live,
Or if I die.