It's clear to me that no one was built to get along with anyone else. Humans are, in fact, created to be constantly unhappy. Especially with each other. This is what I learned from reading Central European fiction. I believe it was Franz Kafka who wrote something along the lines of "We are incapable of loving, only fear excites us." After living through a decade dedicated to making us feel freaked out at all times, one might feel like the clouds now are parting. Fear hasn't excited us so much over the last 5 years or so. We've just learned to accept it. And the thing we take for love probably isn't technically love. "Love Your Neighbor" is more like "Tolerate Your Neighbor." Love, naturally, is an emotion that makes us do things we'd never do and behave in ways that are completely at odds with the way we want to live. I mean, no one decides logically to fall in love with a loser or anything. We wouldn't chose to fall in love; it's an entirely out-of-control feeling that is, at heart, unnerving. No one likes to feel out-of-control. Or in love with people who don't deserve our love. Or unloved by people we want to love. If Fear is what we're left with because we've lost the capability to truly love anyone else, than we must constantly be finding new things to fear. Fear I get. Love I don't get. READ MORE

Every year on the first of April the editors of The Awl commission a poem by a respected scribe to best encapsulate our feelings about the day. This time around we went with an Englishman of the 20th century known for his bleak and unsparing view of modern life. Enjoy! READ MORE

94. Going
93. The North Ship
92. Homage To A Government
91. To Put One Brick Upon Another
90. Faith Healing
89. A Study Of Reading Habits
88. Grief
87. Love, We Must Part Now
86. Deceptions
85. The School In August
84. I Remember, I Remember
83. Vers De Société
82. Mother, Summer, I
81. Water
80. Arrival
79. Wild Oats
78. Counting
77. Maiden Name
76. Wedding Wind
75. I Have Started To Say
74. New Eyes Each Year
73. To My Wife
72. Since The Majority Of Me
71. Cut Grass
70. Like The Train's Beat
69. Reasons For Attendance
68. Maturity
67. Breadfruit
66. Long Sight In Age
65. To Failure
64. The Building
63. Essential Beauty
62. First Sight
61. No Road
60. Myxomatosis
59. Solar
58. Wants
57. Modesties
56. This Is The First Thing
55. Story
54. Days
53. How Distant
52. Far Out
51. Triple Time
50. Wires
49. If Hands Could Free You, Heart
48. Night-Music
47. The Spirit Wooed
46. The Trees
45. Dublinesque
44. Ignorance
43. Ambulances
42. Toads
41. Nothing To Be Said
40. Next, Please
39. Church Going
38. Talking In Bed
37. The Mower
36. Send No Money
35. MCMXIV
34. Poetry Of Departures
33. The Explosion
32. Träumerei
31. The Little Lives Of Earth And Form
30. Autobiography At An Air-Station
29. Skin
28. Why Did I Dream Of You Last Night?
27. Is It For Now Or For Always
26. Best Society
25. Money
24. Love Songs In Age
23. Sad Steps
22. At Grass
21. Whatever Happened?
20. Sunny Prestatyn
19. Lines On A Young Lady's Photograph Album
18. Home Is So Sad
17. The Importance Of Elsewhere
16. Toads Revisited
15. Continuing To Live
14. When First We Faced, And Touching Showed
13. The Old Fools
12. Love Again
11. An Arundel Tomb
10. Take One Home For The Kiddies
9. Dockery And Son
8. Annus Mirabilis
7. The Whitsun Weddings
6. This Be The Verse
5. Bridge for the Living
4. Friday Night At The Royal Station Hotel
3. High Windows
2. Mr Bleaney
1. Aubade