to know metals & waters luminous
uttering one another in supple confabulations

to breach the certainty of joy passing
& to remain & to remain afresh

to savor nothing owed but diligence
& to have gained all the fathoms of circumstance

to peel like easy dirt layers of undesire
& nest in the direction of sunlight's itinerary

to evade the arid junk of temporalities shed
& stand straight where winds topple saplings

to find in a jeweled concentration of presence
that the future is & must be undying

to suffer no fear of high winds to understand
the meaning of an emotion's geometry

to make way for something other than one's
own body & be satisfied with creation

one must know what the winds & the nothing
& the undesire & the sapling know about time

& be content to live without a name for such
knowledge or a method for communicating it

to remain beyond the need for darkness
for inward incinerations & a counterfeit solace

[ © 2001 Joseph Robertson ]