Thou art my Father, thou my
Author, thou my Being giv’st me—²
Thy father is Transfus’d into thy blood.³
To you your father should be as a God—
One that Composes your beauties, yea, and
One to whom you are but as a form in Wax.⁴
It is a Wise Child that
Knows their own father.⁵
Even a rough Sketch, a Shadow,
A tiny Fragment of a dad is still a dad.⁶
We all have to take the step that
Separates us from our Father—⁷
It is not ye that speak—but the
Spirit of your Father which Speaketh in you!⁸
In my ears my father’s word hums ignorantly
As the sea in shells: Love, Love, my child …⁹
Father, child—under One Quilt!¹⁰
¹ William Cullen Bryant, Thanatopsis
² John Milton, Paradise Lost
³ John Dryden, Ode
⁴ William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream
⁵ Homer tr. Samuel Butler, The Odyssey
⁶ Jean-Dominique Bauby tr. Jeremy Leggatt, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
⁷ Hermann Hesse tr. Damion Searls, Demian
⁸ Matthew 10:20 (King James)
⁹ Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Aurora Leigh
¹⁰ Shushiki tr. Stark & Ikemoto, Frost of Separation