Year's End
The artists follow the money, for their kids
and for the joy of rich commissions.
And the scientists seek the laboratories with grants.
But how are we to do it, here
in the light, in this roundness,
And the crocuses don't seem to mind the north wind,
and the anemones don't look tattered.
It gets harder and harder to turn on the radio,
that's the wrong excitement.
Ironic or angry, no,
let the wind blow "aflame with lightning",
let the quince leaves turn color and fall.
And at year's end with no real work done, nothing uncovered,
just the making of sentences,
pretty good after all these years,
But good for nothing, a laugh.
Orion, Taurus, the Pleiades,
But the sky must clear and the wind be bearable
and the goddess-owl hoots through the valley, lecherous,
and the goats inside because of kids,
the birth howls,
These can be said with nothing to say,
These can be put in a pattern
with nothing new to say
Except that the saying is always new
like winter light on the low wavecrests
and the fish rhythmic below.
Page(s) 38
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