Walking Swiftly with Robert Bly

In those days I had these coke bottle glasses & I could see a pine cone or a Chinese fan

When I raised them straight to my nose & yet I walked as fast as a man can walk

& no surprise: the body was not afraid of zeroes or empty rooms;

It didn’t see the cloud that resembled a mountain

For when our footing is uncertain men and women see nothing at all.

We were walking beside a lake

& Robert said the shadows cast by the pines

Were like the silences of families

But we were moving quickly

In several darknesses—too many

For a human frame—please understand

The body is pure uncertainty

& its shadows are unobserved

Though we make all the world an algorythmn

Lining up the churches and jeweled caskets, the eyes of animals,

Occidental numbers,post mortems of the heart

The body enters the ocean without claim

Without thought— we have been poor always—

Walking swiftly we are the poorest things in nature.

You who love the bitter seeds in bread and poetry…

You who never believe in devils…

You who laugh at the felicities of Russian rhymes that stay in the ear for a lifetime…

No one calls us

But walking swiftly

The house stands among thorns.

"I will come again to this poorest of houses," the body says. "But not this morning."

S.K.

Comments

[Georgia Whitney]

This is a wonderful poem, Steve. So good to have a post from you. -- GW