| FOR ONCE, THEN, SOMETHING Other�s taunt me with having knelt at well-curbs Always wrong to the light, so never seeing Deeper down in the well than where the water Gives me back in a shining surface picture My myself in the summer heaven, godlike, Looking out of a wreath of fern and cloud puffs. Once when trying with chin against a well-curb, I discerned, as I thought, beyond the picture, Through the picture, a something white, uncertain, Something more of the depths - and then I lost it. Water came to rebuke the too clear water. One drop fell from a fern, and lo, a ripple Shook whatever it was lay there at the bottom, Blurred it, blotted it out. What was that whiteness?? Truth?? A pebble of quartz?? For once, then, something. ----------------------------- THE LOCKLESS DOOR It went many years, But at last came a knock, And I thought of the door With no lock to lock. I blew out the light, I tiptoed the floor, And raised both hands, In prayer to the door. But the knock came again. My window was wide; I climbed on the sill And descended outside. Back over the sill I bade a �Come in� To whatever the knock At the door may have been. So at a knock I emptied my cage To hide in the world And alter with age. ---------------------- THE MIDDLENESS OF THE ROAD The road at the top of the rise Seems to come to an end And take off into the skies. So at the distant bend It seems to go into a wood, The place of standing still As long as the trees have stood. But say what Fancy will, The mineral drops that explode To drive my ton of a car Are limited to the road. They deal with near and far, But have almost nothing to do With the absolute flight and rest The universal blue And local green suggest. -------------------------- |
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