254 lines
6.9 KiB
Plaintext
254 lines
6.9 KiB
Plaintext
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{} {}
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{} from {}
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{} {}
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{} THE UNEXPECTED {}
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{} {}
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{} by {}
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{} {}
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{} CAROL BERGE {}
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{} {}
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{} {}
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SONG FOR BEGINNING
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yes you are permitted you are
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allowed yes you are hallowed
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are given grace are
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valid
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as you are as you stand as you
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walk
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yes you are forgiven you
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are loved are embraced
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yes
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you are
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called excellent as you stand and
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as you simply sit
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yes you start
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thus a small step this step
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a hesitant a wondering as frond
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of fern in wind
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then milkweed or
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another step until
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moss and then
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yes you are running there is rain
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the air of light the leaves
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all the
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faces the finally friends o
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yes
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yes
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you are so beautiful as you
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walk as you run fly not moving in
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wind leaves
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are hallowed the sun
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and your face o listen
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all the
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yes finally
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WITH WATER
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each of them says 'I have loved you
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because you have never told me i am ugly'
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soap sets blood: cool water removes it.
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there they go, down the oldest streets
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in each of the cities, wearing the tall hat
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of self-abnegation, their worn fingernails
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adorned with commemorative postage-stamps
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bearing their youthful faces. last year's
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rumors made cabbages sources of nutrition
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and potatoes were valueless: this was
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reversed ten years ago, and the housewives
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cooked them in every phase. but when
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the house became quiet, the night drowning
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in denigration, 'i have loved you well,
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mark this, mark what i have done, notice,'
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with water, with kettles full of hot water,
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to set the blood, and the next morning
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there they go, toward the village fountain,
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toward the white mistakes of soap to set it.
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TOMCAT DOING NOTHING
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_for Frank Murphy_
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It sits
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it is being an animal
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a male animal
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alive on earth
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it is alive.
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It is alive
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apparently motionless
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the atoms within are moving
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back toward earth
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it is a cat sitting
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apparently doing nothing.
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The ribcage moves
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the diaphragm moves slightly
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the lungs
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the digestive tract.
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Eyes stare straight ahead
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into infinity.
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As he sits immobile
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he is moving moving moving
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UNFINISHED POEM
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i. to go out
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to the world
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this time dressed as a
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japanese printmaker,
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not the eyes or
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epicanthus, but
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yes,
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perspective
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as that of an island:
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out,
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out into a world,
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to find it earth! and
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more simple, complex
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than it seemed:
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reducible
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to a few lines with
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shadings, the wood
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to its grain
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rather than to the
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external form.
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what
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part of earth are you!
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and after that, to
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go out,
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perhaps dressed as a
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haida shaman,
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finding it
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all ocean! and
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strewn with cowry: lines
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across sand.
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once.
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the land bridged.
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ii. let it
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be an earth color;
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orange or hematite or
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dark as vital loam
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where rivers are,
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or blue
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of roots from
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the parched mesas,
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saved
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distillate of rain
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toward one hand.
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but always
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as this rug
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woven
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of wool from a real sheep,
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alive, shorn with shears
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and dyed
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perhaps with berries
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until brilliant, or
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left so:
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the soft natural.
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but always
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fashioned with
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eyes, with hands,
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as friends' faces, worn or
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young: with the
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nature of it
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evident,
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brought
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out.
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OF ROOTS AND SOURCES
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(_for d. levertov_)
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as when the person's bones and thoughts
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show like branches, through the skin,
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through the years, overlaid in muted or
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fern tracery. or the voice remembered
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when the page is read. it is the sense
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of the thing to come, when discovering
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this face that is not new, after all:
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the idea opposite you which agrees
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with these definitions you have become.
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under spruce, the needles fall and fall,
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the new in patterns resembling letters,
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the past forming their base or the way
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through which the fine sheets climb.
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it is those moving near you, to remind
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of roots and sources, of your own leaf.
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THE SMALL TOWN
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What each of us does
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is so interesting.
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Especially to each other.
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Interesting to each other.
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What we do
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to and with each other.
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This is the most
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interesting place on
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earth at the most
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interesting possible time.
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Here. Right now. We are
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right, now; we are right
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here. We are all right.
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Yes, we are all here.
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Here we are, and it is
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all we are. All of it is so
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interesting, to each other,
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what a place to be placed
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in, in history,
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at this time on earth!
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Doing what we do, the way
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we do it, to and with
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each other. And always
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so interested in each other.
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If you move here, you
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will automatically be here
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too, and you will be
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part of what we do
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a moving part of it all
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and therefore interesting
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while you are doing and
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being done to.
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Meantime, we are all here
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in this place and it is
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the best place to be
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more now than ever.
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{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}
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{} {}
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{} THE UNEXPECTED was published by Membrane {}
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{} Press, Milwaukee. It is now available {}
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{} from Light and Dust through the Grist {}
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{} On-Line Bookstore. Copyright (C) 1976 by {}
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{} Carol Berge. {}
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{} {}
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