You Want a Social Life, with Friends
by Kenneth Koch
You want a social life, with friends.
A passionate love life and as well
To work hard every day. What’s true
Is of these three you may have two
And two can pay you dividends
But never may have three.
There isn’t time enough, my friends–
Though dawn begins, yet midnight ends–
To find the time to have love, work, and friends.
Michelangelo had feeling
For Vittoria and the Ceiling
But did he go to parties at day’s end?
Homer nightly went to banquets
Wrote all day but had no lockets
Bright with pictures of his Girl.
I know one who loves and parties
And has done so since his thirties
But writes hardly anything at all.
You Want a Social Life, with Friends was first published in Straits (1998) in a subsection called “Songs from the Plays” and subsequently in Koch’s The Collected Poems of Kenneth Koch (2005), page 588.
Love this poem — have always loved this poem — and am thrilled to see it in use as a title in this way! My memory is that it appeared first in the New Yorker in the late 80s. I even think that I remember when I first encountered it (in the magazine) at the old Shakespeare and Co. bookstore on the upper west side. In any case, it’s so nice to see it out in the world. Took a poetry course with KK once (before then) that had a lasting impact. Best of luck with the project.