There was some Miscalculation
In the nearby untouched grassland …²
We’re meeting each other—not “under the moon”
Or “beneath the stars”—but “Above the Grass.”³
The sign “No Walking on the Grass”
Is a symptom of lunacy.⁴
Trimly she Traces and softly
She Treads the tender grasse.⁵
What went ye out into the Wilderness to
Behold? A Reed shaken by the wind!⁶
Dreams & Legends spring to
Life out of the grass!⁷
Our Flesh has a Perfection in compliance with
The Grass truer than any it could have striven for:⁸
This blade of grass leads us to draw every Plant and
Then the Seasons, the wide aspects of the Countryside,
Then Animals, then the Human figure—so we pass
Life, and life is too short to do the Whole …⁹
A Leaf of Grass is no less than
The journey-work of the Stars!¹⁰
¹ Sylvia Plath, Snakecharmer
² Joanna Klink, Obituary
³ Douglas Adams, Life, The Universe and Everything
⁴ Wisława Szymborska tr. Barańczak & Cavanagh, We’re Extremely Fortunate
⁵ Edmund Spenser, Daphnaïda
⁶ Matthew 11:7 (King James)
⁷ J.R.R. Tolkien, The Two Towers
⁸ Wendell Berry, Testament
⁹ Vincent Van Gogh, to his brother Theo—Arles, 1888
¹⁰ Walt Whitman, Song of Myself