Days

Philip Larkin was afraid of death.  However this did not prevent him from creating poems that are full of Beauty and Truth, and which celebrate the wonder and joy of being alive -- in their own Larkinesque way, of course.  Do not believe those who caricature Larkin as a dour, cranky misanthrope.  Anybody who holds this view has not taken the time to actually read Larkin's poems.

            Days
What are days for?
Days are where we live.
They come, they wake us
Time and time over.
They are to be happy in:
Where can we live but days?

Ah, solving that question
Brings the priest and the doctor
In their long coats
Running over the fields.
-Philip Larkin, The Whitsun Weddings (Faber & Faber 1964).

Larkin being Larkin, the second verse is required.  But consider the first verse. Some may say that the line "They are to be happy in" is intended to be morbid or ironic.  It is not.  Others may say that the entire poem is nothing more than a cliché.  In fact, it is a simple statement of truth.

The modern urge to over-complicate life puzzles me.  "Days are where we live." Look around.  Everything is right there in front of you.