You are young. So you know everything. You leap
into the boat and begin rowing. But, listen to me.
Without fanfare, without embarrassment, without
any doubt, I talk directly to your soul. Listen to me.
Lift the oars from the water, let your arms rest, and
your heart, and heart’s little intelligence, and listen to
me. There is life without love. It is not worth a bent
penny, or a scuffed shoe. It is not worth the body of a
dead dog nine days unburied. When you hear, a mile
away and still out of sight, the churn of the water
as it begins to swirl and roil, fretting around the
sharp rocks—when you hear that unmistakable
pounding—when you feel the mist on your mouth
and sense ahead the embattlement, the long falls
plunging and steaming—then row, row for your life
toward it.
I posted this in 2012, but Mary Oliver past away this week, and I keep thinking of this poem.
I heard about that as well. What a great poet and essayist. Sad to hear of her passing.
Ditto, Brian. I just recently found her work. Krista Tippett w/ On Being re-aired an interview she did w/ Mary in 2015ish. Definitely worth a listen. RIP, Mary. Grateful that'll her voice will continue thru her poems.
Reading, we are allowed to follow someone else's train of thought as it starts off for an imaginary place. This train has been produced for us--or rather materialized and extended until it is almost nothing like the ephemeral realizations with which we are familiar. To see words pulled one by one into existence is to intrude on a privacy of sorts. But we are familiar with the contract between spectator and performer. Now the text isn't a train but an actress model who takes off her school uniform piece by piece alone with the camera man. She's a good girl playing at being bad, all the time knowing better. She invites us to join her in that knowledge. But this is getting us nowhere.
Left it by the frozen water The leaves were drifting down Now they are gone, gone, gone
2. I draw milady's carriage Ever since her horse retired I don't think I can pull much longer I've never been this tired before
3 Up jump the black chain dancers Empty hands that grasp for answers Fasten on to one another, fly Fly away
4 Ariel is sweetly singing Wait you, just one more season You're not blind, you only hide your Eyes within your hands, within your hands
Ariel, Ariel Ariel, Ariel
5 There is no night like this night Where candles burn through daylight Minds restrained by golden tethers fade Fade away
6 The sun objects with smiling sadness Roman highways laced in diamonds Sink like grave Atlantis into Dreams of other days they fade away
7 Monuments to crippled madness Puppets dangle in the treetops The cold magician carves his voice in stone Then flies away, then flies away
8 Ariel sings overhead Deaf men mouth the words she's said But they don't hear the songs she's singing now Oh no, not now
Ariel, Ariel Ariel, Ariel
9 As wild and unholy place As any place I've ever been You can knock and knock and knock No one comes to let you in, no one comes
10 As solid and as fine a floor As any floor I've walked upon Broke beneath my footsteps I've got no place left to stand, not any more
11 Loves to love and not to chain Some are lost but some remain Nothing can replace the light That once has died turned to night, no one can
12 If I had the sense to know Which things count and which are show I'd hold my fate within my hands Instead of all these chains and bands Yes, I would
Comments
Reading, we are allowed to follow someone else's train of thought as it starts off for an imaginary place. This train has been produced for us--or rather materialized and extended until it is almost nothing like the ephemeral realizations with which we are familiar. To see words pulled one by one into existence is to intrude on a privacy of sorts. But we are familiar with the contract between spectator and performer. Now the text isn't a train but an actress model who takes off her school uniform piece by piece alone with the camera man. She's a good girl playing at being bad, all the time knowing better. She invites us to join her in that knowledge. But this is getting us nowhere.
(2002)
Rae Armantrout
The leaves were drifting down
Now they are gone, gone, gone
Ever since her horse retired
I don't think I can pull much longer
I've never been this tired before
Empty hands that grasp for answers
Fasten on to one another, fly
Fly away
Wait you, just one more season
You're not blind, you only hide your
Eyes within your hands, within your hands
Ariel, Ariel
Where candles burn through daylight
Minds restrained by golden tethers fade
Fade away
Roman highways laced in diamonds
Sink like grave Atlantis into
Dreams of other days they fade away
Puppets dangle in the treetops
The cold magician carves his voice in stone
Then flies away, then flies away
Deaf men mouth the words she's said
But they don't hear the songs she's singing now
Oh no, not now
Ariel, Ariel
Ariel, Ariel
As any place I've ever been
You can knock and knock and knock
No one comes to let you in, no one comes
As any floor I've walked upon
Broke beneath my footsteps
I've got no place left to stand, not any more
Some are lost but some remain
Nothing can replace the light
That once has died turned to night, no one can
Which things count and which are show
I'd hold my fate within my hands
Instead of all these chains and bands
Yes, I would
Ariel, Ariel
Ariel, Ariel
Ariel, Ariel
~Robert Hunter, Grateful Dead lyricist