A single thing is Sublime, which
Does not fear Surrender to the Whole—²
The self is merely a formal necessity:
It allows the infinite relations of Self to Other—³
The Whole isn’t just greater than its parts:
It’s their counter-argument, their Antidote.⁴
We’re not individuals—but part of
A huge, implacable, elemental Design:⁵
We are caught in an Inescapable network of
Mutuality, Tied in a single garment of destiny:
What affects One directly, affects All indirectly—⁶
No one is an Island entire of itself—
Everyone is a piece of a Continent,
A part of the Main.⁷
We are Strangers learning to
Worship the Strangers around us—⁸
We read life’s Meaning in each other’s eyes—⁹
The composite Life we live is Us!¹⁰
¹ Primo Levi tr. original, To My Friends
² Carson McCullers, The Sojourner
³ Maurice Blanchot tr. unknown, The Writing of the Disaster
⁴ Christopher Spaide, Give Me More Time
⁵ Richard Wright, Black Boy
⁶ Martin Luther King Jr., Letter from Birmingham Jail
⁷ John Donne, Devotions upon Emergent Occasions
⁸ June Jordan, These Poems
⁹ Susan Marr Spalding, Fate
¹⁰ Mary Oppen, Journal on Visit to Israel 1975