There are some things one remembers even though they never happened. There are things I remember which may never have happened but as I recall them they take place.
—Anna in Old Times (1971)
"How can you write a happy play? Drama is about conflict and general degrees of perturbation, disarray. I've never been able to write a happy play, but I've been able to enjoy a happy life." (— Harold Pinter)
PARIS
The curtain white in folds,
She walks two steps and turns,
The curtain still, the light
Staggers in her eyes.
The lamps are golden.
Afternoon leans, silently.
She dances in my life.
The white day burns.
The curtain white in folds,
She walks two steps and turns,
The curtain still, the light
Staggers in her eyes.
The lamps are golden.
Afternoon leans, silently.
She dances in my life.
The white day burns.
1975
It Is Here (For A)
What sound was that?
I turn away, into the shaking room.
What was that sound that came in on the dark?
What is this maze of light it leaves us in?
What is this stance we take,
to turn away and then turn back?
What did we hear?
It was the breath we took when we first met.
Listen. It is here.
1990
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Harold Pinter, Collected Poems and Prose, Grove Press, 1991
Photo: Harold Pinter and Lady Antonia Fraser on their wedding day in Kensington
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