tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-47587653132867257992024-03-08T05:37:04.310-08:00Intimate DistanceJohn R. Campbellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14467574232290253686noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4758765313286725799.post-15381890267148359892010-03-16T17:26:00.001-07:002013-07-03T09:22:05.800-07:00Fourteen Poems<span style="font-family: Times;"><b><o:p></o:p></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">Aphasia</span><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: small;">A man of about seventy years of age sits at a table holding a pencil in his hand. It is cradled between his fingers as though he is preparing to write with it. “What is this?" a woman asks, pointing to the pencil from across the table. “Uh, it's a wedge for the rain...?" he replies with a sort of questioning tone, and moves it in a vague writing gesture. “What do you use it for?" the lady continues. “...For the rain to scretch," he answers. “Very good," she responds. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: small;"> from <i>The Symbolic Species</i></span><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: small;">, Terrence W. Deacon</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">1<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">A stroke has altered our patient's speech,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">an absence of blood has starved it. Dry<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">and unremitting, the absence expresses<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">itself on command, with every lilting<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">intension. An entire, if isolated, world<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">ensues. Think of a ship in the Galapagos,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">of Darwin scribbling in meticulous logs,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">of the pilgrim at the grail of necessity.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">So absence commands its lexicon, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">a wrong but familiar order of words, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">a species of speech borne, by storms, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">to a separated island. There it quickly <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">diverges, evolving to suit its habitat, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">to carve a niche out of niches. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">(These caverns, this absence, are all <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">that remain: the island is water: mirage.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">There <i>is</i></span><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;"> the mistake of interpretation;<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">our patient depends on his error.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">His “questioning tone" is to him a new<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">music, “the lilting intension" a spree. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">Our patient has suffered immensely--<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">not only his fall, his symptom,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">but the world that precedes the disease. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">Health was always his nemesis,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">his many blessings his curse.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">There was always slippage, the oblong <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">silences filling with breath, and <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">the bloodless center (left hemisphere, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">temporal lobe) obscure. Remember:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">there <i>is</i></span><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;"> a life he longs to retrieve,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">inexactly, devoutly, it's true. His faith <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">in his speech spans every rupture, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">and sutures the gashes that nothing<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">can heal. Disease redefines his terms.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">While “a wedge for the rain" rings true<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">for outsiders, for him it is <i>essential</i></span><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">“A vague writing gesture" may very well be<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">a precise and mysterious venture. This, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">for our patient, is the crux, is the accident <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">of his calling. He beseeches the world<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">with every mistake. Ownership, origin, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">passionate speech: our blood rises gently <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">inside. While a world away he survives,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">a variant right beside us. Aphasia<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">is a place, equatorial, calm. Exotica <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">thrive in this Eden, and hot storms swirl <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">around a dead eye. There he names the world <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">as he pleases, exquisite in his need.<br clear="ALL" style="page-break-before: always;" /> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">Prophet<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">When the pious fall from the mountain like sated fleas,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">when the loggers spit their last tobacco in the innocent salal,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">when the woods are empty of the equal curses <i>sacred</i></span><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">, <i>profane</i></span><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">then his words will emit their real ramifications, like fungus <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">spreading its mycelial net, its ripe body in the soil. Until then,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">he's hidden. He slumps like a fern, scrapes his knuckles <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">on bark. He slips in his cheap shoes on the slick lobaria. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">Sooty from his fire, he falters among boles nine centuries old.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">He's forgotten how as a young man he first saw lightning,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">no longer abstract, score a fir with black spirals. Now<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">it's all routine: sound and silence as categories, no nuance<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">in between. The ouzel, no longer an angel, dips mechanically <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">in the creek, while salamanders deliver their young unseen. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">Though tourists and murderous officials lurk beyond the trees,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">though animals are assigned numbers this time, not names, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">the prophet is still: no savior to announce, and nothing so colorful <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">as apocalypse. Pausing among the firs, he's surprisingly slight, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">like a thorn, or a comet, or the owl's body beneath its down.<br clear="ALL" style="page-break-before: always;" /> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">Delusion<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">A little soup <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">would be appropriate.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">We are sick, and our parents are far-flung,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">victims of plate tectonics, sad<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">recipients of acid rain. Their suffering<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">is behind us now, and our lives<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">unfold like unforeseeable insects,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">grotesque. A moment ago <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">I wondered if brothers and sisters <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">are variations of each other,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">if, then, cousins and animals and palm trees<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">are variations of each other, if<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">light might be a variation of fog,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">or the desert an altered sea.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">It turns out I'm right,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">that even science agrees,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">that my own family is as distant <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">as steppes or tundra, and as near as the phallic pine cones<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">scattered under my tree. It turns out<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">that a nativity occurs nightly,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">that dumb kings gather around my bed, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">humming while I sleep. It turns out that I'm responsible<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">for all this, that my confusion<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">is the chaos of nature, my ego<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">the invisible dome<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">that holds up the jungle canopy,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">sustains the thin blue sphere.<br clear="ALL" style="page-break-before: always;" /> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">A Large Garage<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">The first snows had blanketed<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">Newberry Crater, and<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">Paulina Peak was transfixed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">Paulina Lake was turquoise and green, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">and olive in the depths<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">where German browns were slowing,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">bobbing in their sleep. Kokanee <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">swayed in the outlet creek, sluggish, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">and died. Then ravens had their way, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">leaving tracks like arrows<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">and burgundy stains in the snow.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">The world was sleeping, all falling to sleep, oh,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">and the part of the earth that is all-inclusive<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">wanted me to know. Was it only a scene,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">everything, the ducks and the pines, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">right down to the scent of snow, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">the promise of cruelty in the air?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">The problem from the first was my love <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">of <i>scenarios</i></span><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">, absurdities in sequence<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">that I called my life. I turned to paintings:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">as with Degas' dancers, the moment<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">was rendered so vividly<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">that history, in a fit of rapture, fled.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">Left here afloat, I can only observe<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">as the girl in the tutu spins. Now all I can love <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">is this theater, as absurdities spill out<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">to the street. Alone and uncertain, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">I walk among rows of garreted houses, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">each turret smothered in autumn maples. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">A man is urinating behind a tree, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">singing, and a large garage is harboring<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">a green and secret jeep. Drivers <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">in their darkened cars, moist amidst upholstery, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">and warm among their metals:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">these are the sinister,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">comic in their search for meaning<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">as they clutch and shift and marvel, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">enclosed in a world that is not their own. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">Pity</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">Shine a light on a fire and it's a pitiful thing. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">Or lay a highway through a forest, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">and the occasional car splits the night <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">like something otherworldly. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">I'm wandering the Umpqua boulders, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">cleaning trout in a pool, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">burning corn, burning wet wood. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">I'm hearing my little baby's cries in the river. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">What I think is a grebe is a gray root. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">What I hear in the trees <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">is my own jaw creaking. I require pity:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">we all still live under the sky. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">Cockpits, oxygenated <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">and dimly lit, are only wombs <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">in the blue animal's womb.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">Even the moon: it was flung from us <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">in an ancient collision, held in orbit by physical <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">bonds. Pity appears spontaneously<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">out of indifferent stuff, just as in our innocence,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">when pearly maggots emerged <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">from piles of greasy rags. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">The Aesthetics of the Hunt<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">October sunlight is listing in the trees.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">Late ospreys turn and plummet,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">stabbing the waters and lifting out fish.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">All this time I've walked inside language,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">insisting I'm free, while the lake<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">is slowly choked with rubble,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">while men and boys, eternally lonely,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">fire their rifles in the woods. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">Words as material as the curl of a pod<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">spill from me in chaotic song. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">I sing the hunt, and the tunnels <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">that rabbits gnaw, and the scraped bark<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">marking a border. I hum the scampered-down <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">entrances to dens, and my song runs long,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">where the fox can't follow. As sugars block <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">the tiny gates to maple stems, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">as the cells in cones sense the dry weather<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">and relax their grips on seeds,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">as the red anthocyanin in woodrush and fescue<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">screens them from the sun,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">so I too have my meek strategies, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">even as I greet, over open ground,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">a camouflaged hunter waving his gun. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">Pornography<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">All creation is a project: the wilderness a garden, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">and sex merchandise. We like having a project, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">unlinking our words from the physical world, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">maybe just for fun. But the single moment pushes out, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">crowning, and the world dilates, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">not because we will it, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">but because it must. Certain animals emerge, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">clothed only in feathers and hair. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;"><i>Desire is metonymy</i></span><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">so we want eros, we want suckle: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">we want the earth. Even if colonial lust <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">has begotten it, there is an Eden of the moment. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">So cast out, there are women, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">and they hunch in eroded soil. Oxen <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">and caribou enter the cities at night. There: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">only men, their genitalia elegantly hidden. There <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">the adolescent courses through empty rooms, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">like an androgynous moon and sun.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">All thought is drunk by the sun, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">reduced to the salt and chemicals <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">of its origin. One might walk incessantly, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">as one always has, but without thinking, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">strictly, of anything. Eventually rain <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">exposes a fossil snail, an artifact <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">of pure sex: rhythm and exchange, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">and the turn inward, toward the pin-point <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">of becoming. A few millennia later, look:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">the yellow-humped boulders <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">have formed tombs upon the snails.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">In that landscape of privacy, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">I project myself onto others, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">whatever sex or species suits me, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">and hop off to the half-light in the cave. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">I'm mobile. Something of the body, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">unmediated, is urging me on. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">I respond like an animal, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">like a limousine. I'm the alpha: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">I'm free of time. I'm the sweet no one<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">you love.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: large;">Misreading Anna Akhmatova</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: small;">This is how it happens: a feeling of tranquility;<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: small;">clocks strike incessantly in my ears;<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: small;">in the distance the thunder dies down.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: small;"> --Akhmatova, “The Secrets of the Craft"</span><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: x-small;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">But what clocks and what thunder<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">we'll never know. I miss your meaning,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">favoring instead the specific clock,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">carved as it is with owls and crude<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">feathers, and hiding ivory birds<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">behind doors. Birds hidden in time,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">and time rendered in wood,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">a time we can understand, unlike<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">the time in rocks or in cesium,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">appeal to me. As for dying thunder: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">your words affect me like that.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">It's a mood, the moment<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">the storm fades, neither <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">nostalgia nor remorse,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">but more like a pine, the needles,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">having shunted the brutal light,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">calmly returning to black.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">Pastoral<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">The dogwood is angelic,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">despite your protests. If it pleases you, then,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">it's pastoral, and if you had a hand <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">in its beauty, it's beautiful. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">But <i>who </i></span><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">posed this question of the dogwood,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">you have to ask. And then wander the woodlots <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">in search of an answer. It's hopelessly old fashioned,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">but there's something <i>to</i></span><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">the symmetry of trees,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">something more than the dappled <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">halves of an equation. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">It provokes you to assert the impossible again,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">and in this way you repeat yourself--<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">I mean you regenerate yourself--<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">your romantic body, fed by romantic proteins,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">clones its romantic cells, and branches<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">in a pasture you'll never see.<o:p></o:p> </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">Our Makeshift Houses<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">The trees are thinning with their usual exactness, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">and autumn's iambic clock<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">has wound all down. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">A cold front comes on, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">and a storm the size of a dime<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">opens the mountain sky.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">Soon snowfields writhe beneath their own weight,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">and a line of firs is halved by an avalanche, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">and an elk comes plodding,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">breasting the snow. Soon we know<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">we're suited to this storm,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">we match its intensity with our mammalian will,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">the sum of meshing pressures, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">of the young Cascades <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">bowing under ice. Soon we'll crouch, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">subject to the sky, shaking <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">in our makeshift houses. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">The creeks will turn feverish,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">and the soil offer up its lonely nitrogen,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">and our children sleep on mats of humus <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">and roots. Our houses, new<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">and elegant as empty trees, will allow <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">the wind and the light,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">allow the storm's undeniable density, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">the icy factors that crest and fall,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">and our lives, slow <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">and transparent,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">will allow and allow and allow.<o:p></o:p> </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">Home, Thought Odysseus</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">Home, thought Odysseus, is just another stop<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">on this rolling sea of terrors.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">Worse than just another stop: home, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">relentlessly identical, grinds hope to a dust<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">that drifts over state lines.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">For every city I wander through, pastel<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">or gray, and each island adorned with orchards,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">the filthy bays dotted with boats,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">seems charged with its own death-like energy,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">a current nearly dead in the walls and bark,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">but present, and sustained so that no one discerns it,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">like locust eggs enduring the years.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">When the muse eludes us she arrives just here,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">dormant in the hollow cells. Calls<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">won't rouse her, nor will entreaties, false in their elegance,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">distract her from her covenant with death.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">In death-like spaces she accommodates us,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">but only in silence, her hand too steady as she pours our tea.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">Home, thought Odysseus, is the crate of spices<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">carried dry over the sea, the jars <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">of undiluted oil. A trick of wood, an uncanny ship: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">a displacement of water, the body, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">home. An annoying knot <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">falls open at last, and <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">a hulk slips from its moorage, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">receding over the lacquered sea.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">Take<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">He could name each ornamental<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">that the landscapers planned in their pastoral zeal. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">And he'd call to the birds happening through, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">nod knowingly at the mushrooms <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">that peek from the duff. Given enough time, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">he could catalogue the Saturnian rings <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">that circle his body, each species <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">twirling like ice. He could lapse into a trance<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">in which all motion ascends and descends--<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">not objects, but motion itself repeatedly plummeting<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">like waves in a substanceless ocean.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">It's a wonderful hell, amoral, <i>sans</i></span><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">suffering, but hell nonetheless for the sentence:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">never to gaze upon god's stiff face. Still, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">he could perch on a cliff of air, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">look down upon the atomic frenzy. And feeling <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">the ecstasy of removal, he could negotiate <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">this neutral hell, delve in the valleys, or rise <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">on the slopes of thermal mountains <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">like a vulture buoyed by death. He could<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">in fact penetrate death with his naked head <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">and neck, and this would be his erotic secret, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">the source of his powers and his shame. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">As the oak proclaims itself with its own lobed <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">leaves, clandestine and open to the sun, so <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">he might regard himself as self-evident, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">self-descriptive, complete. A few square yards of soil<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">might sustain him for a lifetime. A minute amount <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">of rain, really, and few more resources <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">than an animal requires. Sure: he'll help himself <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">from shelves in the earth. Nature will serve <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">him masterfully. Separate from the chaos of hunger, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">faint in the thralls of art, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">he'll be possessed by an ardor unlike anything <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">he's known. He'll lie awake all night regarding a statue, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">something animalesque. When dawn<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">interrupts his reverie, he'll address the sun formally,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">in awe of its dome. He'll speak in sleepy sentences <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">of cathedrals, of planetary gestures,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">of a light over cities <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">that augurs their demise.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">The Landscape Painter<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">She shows me the underpaintings, the brush-strokes, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">and all the values involved.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">A little light here against the darkness,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">she says, and all is forgiven. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">In the water there are shivers of black, just here,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">and in a gully, the shadow is definite-- all the earth, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">she says, is being eclipsed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">It's just a matter of rendering the degrees.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">As when we make love, in the afternoons,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">as when we shade each other's bodies, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">as when I ask, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">is this what you mean by eclipse. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">Seeing her astride me is like watching a heron lift--<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">I'm awed at her slowness, her width,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">at the pull of her muscles beneath her plumage, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">at her awkward gratitude<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">for her own gift. And I know that birds <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">and wind and soil find their own way,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">in spite of us. If we submit,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">we are shaped by streams more powerful <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">than even our own stupidity. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">Once on the Umpqua River,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">I stood over the slow apparition of a steelhead.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">It showed me its huge flank,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">spotted and gleaming, and a band of violet<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">like a dusk sky. So I can believe in nothing more than a canvas,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">or a fish's side. I can believe in a two-dimensional world,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">even as I yearn for the moment it tilts,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">becoming almost full. The blue marbled globe<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">is still only an image to us, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">we who've travelled so far. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">The earth is still flat and translucent,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">hinting at what's beyond. But there's a process of osmosis,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">fluids moving through miraculous walls,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">and there's a distance as flat as perspective,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">where everything exists, in reality,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">on a single plane. So I'm urging lines <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">and terraces of color. I'm urging rivers<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">and granite shelves. I'm urging the striated joy <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">that animals know, and I'm urging<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">their gestures. When the painting is complete, she says, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">you'll know it by an almost inaudible sigh. All form<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">will fall away. You'll look at your world <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">and cock your head. You'll suddenly crave salt. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">You'll be proud and glad at being a mammal. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">You'll go and wash your hands and hair.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">Bidding the Child Goodbye<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">Maybe you're tired of these thresholds.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">Maybe you're tired of clinging to the doorjamb like a guest.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">Maybe we usher you to just this point,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">then swoop up, maybe<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">skirting the sky, but at any rate<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">leaving you, as always. And who taught us to value flight, if<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">not the clumsy, earthbound philosophers?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">Birds themselves are nonchalant<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">about the virtues of the sky,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">preferring seed or insects to grace,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">liking their own techniques to nothing but wings<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">and bills and dipping tails: blissfully<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">sufficient bodies, eschewing,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">with pure action instead of intent,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">the spiritual sky. So you're thinking<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">you want to cross lines,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">enter deeply into a world in reality so shallow it could hardly contain you, </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">like a leafy<o:p></o:p> closet, or horizontally,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">a stratified coffin of rock.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">You long for a touch on the arm and a phrase that might introduce you, politely,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">to your imagined swirling persona,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">a human turning like a slow cyclone<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">among ferns and drooping orchids.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">The forest seems endless, and metaphors<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">of the heart keep occurring,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">organically, of their own accord.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">Ropes and hemp mats are scattered in a clearing,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">and here and there are signs of exquisite basketry.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">Even the clay curls up from the ground,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">suggesting vessels. Fleas<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">and alabaster-colored ants move freely, of their own accord,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">among mammals and debris.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">A few oddly unmelodic birds<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">conceal themselves in the trees.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">You've entered your imagined cave of nature, peopled<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">as it is with unfathomable life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">You've created the world, beginning<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">with light. The sky is finally the limit,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">a lit and rounded wall. Remember as we leave you here<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">that we love you, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">that we forgive you every error, that you<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">are the terror of our generation,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;">and that we'll always love you,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times;"><span style="font-size: large;">because nothing can stop you now.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
John R. Campbellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14467574232290253686noreply@blogger.com0