Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist.

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

AFTER ARGUING AGAINST THE CONTENTION THAT
ART MUST COME FROM DISCONTENT

Whispering to each handhold, "I'll be back,"
I go up the cliff in the dark.  One place
I loosen a rock and listen a long time
till it hits, faint in the gulf, but the rush
of the torrent almost drowns it out, and the wind--
I almost forgot the wind: it tears at your side
or it waits and then buffets: you sag outward. . . .

I remember they said it would be hard.  I scramble
by luck into a little pocket out of
the wind and begin to beat on the stones
with my scratched numb hands, rocking back and forth
in silent laughter there in the dark--
"Made it again!" Oh how I love this climb!
--the whispering to stones, the drag, the weight
as your muscles crack and ease on, working
right.  They are back there, discontent,
waiting to be driven forth.  I pound
on earth, riding past the stars:
"Made it again! Made it again!"

-William Stafford

THIS IS JUST TO SAY

I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold

 EL HOMBRE

It's a strange courage
you give me ancient star:

Shine alone in the sunrise
toward which you lend no part!

 

 

 

-William Carlos Williams

               XXIV

I saw a man pursuing the horizon:
Round and round they sped.

I was disturbed at this;
I accosted the man.
"It is futile," I said.
"You can never-------"

"You lie," he cried,
And ran on.

                   89

A man said to the universe:
"Sir, I exist!"
"However," replied the universe,
"The fact has not created in me
A sense of obligation."

 

- Stephen Crane
Return to words tim@frontier.net last time I got off my ass and changed something here: 17 Oct 2002