Thou art my Father, thou my
Author, thou my Being giv’st me²
Even a rough Sketch, a Shadow, a
Tiny Fragment of a dad is still a Dad³
It is not ye that speak – but the Spirit
Of your Father which Speaketh in you⁴
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 Wax⁵
It is a Wise Child that knows their own Father⁶
In my ears my Father’s word Hums ignorantly
As the Sea in shells: Love, love, my Child⁷
Thy Father is Transfus’d into thy Blood⁸
Father, Child – under One Quilt⁹
We all have to take the step that
Separates us from our Father¹⁰
¹ William Cullen Bryant, Thanatopsis
² John Milton, Paradise Lost
³ Jean-Dominique Bauby tr. Jeremy Leggatt, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
⁴ Matthew 10:20 (King James)
⁵ William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream
⁶ Homer tr. Samuel Butler, The Odyssey
⁷ Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Aurora Leigh
⁸ John Dryden, Ode
⁹ Shushiki tr. Lucian Stark & Takashi Ikemoto, Frost of Separation
¹⁰ Hermann Hesse tr. Damion Searls, Demian