ARS POETICA
Nothing can be said
that is intended.
You cannot grow melons
but you learn that swamp grass
is of equal value.
If you should exact
the sound of a dove
you are perhaps unfortunate.
The coo must become
something slightly
undefined and private.
Deference to the self
is the only way to patience.
Is the slug unhappy
because he has no followers?
If you believed once in water
(whether oceans or tears)
you will someday uncover salt.
You will learn how it is mined,
begin a study of structure.
Curiously, you'll find the tongue
reluctant to accept a formal logic.
What you tend, after all,
is invariably simple:
a leaf, a blade, a stone,
the vowels long and pure,
rich and lovely.
—Anne Coray
____
from Bone Strings (Scarlet Tanager Books)