27 August 2005

Reverie in Open Air

I acknowledge my status as a stranger:
Inappropriate clothes, odd habits
Out of sync with wasp and wren.
I admit I don't know how
To sit still or move without purpose.
I prefer books to moonlight, statuary to trees.

But this lawn has been leveled for looking,
So I kick off my sandals and walk its cool green.
Who claims we're mere muscle and fluids?
My feet are the primitives here.
As for the rest--ah, the air now
Is a tonic of absence, bearing nothing
But news of a breeze.

~ Rita Dove, born on this day in 1952

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Did we know Rita Dove was a kindred spirit? That was lovely, thanks for sharing with me. More to share soon...the starlight at the moonlit gardens was amazing.

Love, Jane

amcorrea said...

Yes. Here's "Geometry":

I prove a theorem and the house expands:
the windows jerk free to hover near the ceiling,
the ceiling floats away with a sigh.

As the walls clear themselves of everything
but transparency, the scent of carnations
leaves with them. I am out in the open

and above the windows have hinged into butterflies,
sunlight glinting where they've intersected.
They are going to some point true and unproven.