(from fourth meditation)
i think of the self-involved:
the ritualists of the mirror, the lonely drinkers,
the minions of benzedrine and paraldehyde,
and those who submerge themselves deliberately in trivia,
women who become their possessions,
shapes stiffening into metal,
match-makers, arrangers of picnics -
what do their lives mean,
and the lives of their children? -
the young, brow-beaten early into a baleful silence,
frozen by a father's lip, a mother's failure to answer.
have they seen, ever, the sharp bones of the poor?
or known, once, the soul's authentic hunger,
those cat-like immaculate creatures
for whom the world works?
...
(from what can i tell my bones?)
the sun! the sun! and all we can become!
and the time ripe for running to the moon!
in long fields, i leave my father's eye;
and shake the secrets from my deepest bones;
my spirit rises with the rising wind;
i'm thick with leaves and tender as a dove,
i take the liberties a short life permits -
i seek my own meekness;
i recover my tenderness by long looking.
by midnight i love everything alive.
who took the darkness from the air?
i'm wet with another life.
yea, i have gone and stayed.
what came to me vaguely is now clear,
as if released by a spirit,
or agency outside me.
unprayed-for,
and final.
// excerpts from two sections of 'meditations of an old woman' by theodore roethke from the book "words for the wind: the collected verse of theodore roethke" i got this book out from the library a few days ago and was disenchanted with most of the stuff in it fairly quickly, so i put it aside for awhile. yesterday before i went to sleep i looked at it again, and tucked in the last pages of the book was this 'meditations of an old woman' verse. its about twenty pages long and extremely beautiful. i find it very fascinating that a man decidedly chose to write from the perspective of an old woman - its interesting to think of how he would have written differently meditations of an old man. either way, beautifully touching verse that crossed me at a time in my life where it all seems extremely relevant.
