Words beget Presences impossible to
Confirm given the Blind action of time²
Come on Poets – Word it till it’s Yours³
We Eat & Drink a precious Word – our
Spirits grow Robust – we know no more
That we are Poor nor that our frame is Dust⁴
Cross the Desolate Stretches of Land where
The Word drags us, making our Wanderings
Bear Amazed witness to its Perennial Nature⁵
Let us Speak, let us Speak – Silence does not suit
Us, since we’re Created in the image of the Word⁶
The Substantial Words are in the Ground &
Sea – they are in the Air – they are in You⁷
Words are Dark Stars – some are Small,
Dull, Solid – some Immense, Complex,
Subtle – with a powerful Gravity-Field
That attracts Infinite Meanings to them⁸
Write a Word on a piece of paper, and
It’ll Stay there, Unmoving – but Your
Thoughts & Feelings are on their way
To the Farthest Corners of the world⁹
Apt Words have power to ‘Suage
Tumors of a Troubled Mind, and
Are as Balm to Festered Wounds¹⁰
¹ Paul Celan tr. Nikolai Popov & Heather McHugh, I Know You
² Li-Young Li, Changing Places in the Fire
³ Rae Armantrout, Flux
⁴ Emily Dickinson, He Ate and Drank the Precious Words
⁵ Edmond Jabès tr. Rosemarie Waldrop, The Desert
⁶ C.P. Cavafy tr. Rae Dalven, The Word and Silence
⁷ Walt Whitman, A Song of the Rolling Earth
⁸ Ursula K. Le Guin, Paradise Lost
⁹ Inger Christenson tr. Susanna Nied, Silk, the Universe, Language, the Heart
¹⁰ John Milton, Samson Agonistes