Not for all the whiskey in heaven Not for all the flies in Vermont Not for all the tears in the basement Not for a million trips to Mars
Charles BernsteinNot for all the whiskey in heaven Not for all the flies in Vermont Not for all the tears in the basement Not for a million trips to Mars
Not if you paid me in diamonds Not if you paid me in pearls Not if you gave me your pinky ring Not if you gave me your curls
Not for all the fire in hell Not for all the blue in the sky Not for an empire of my own Not even for peace of mind
No, never, I’ll never stop loving you Not till my heart beats its last And even then in my words and my songs I will love you all over again
Charles BernsteinCharles Bernstein is author of Attack of the Difficult Poems: Essays & Inventions (Chicago), All the Whiskey in Heaven: Selected Poems (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) and Blind Witness: Three American Operas (Factory School). He teaches at the University of Pennsylvania, where he is co-director of PennSound. Photo credit "Kush / Cloud House"