Saturday, September 15, 2012

The Layers

The Layers

BY STANLEY KUNITZ
I have walked through many lives,
some of them my own,
and I am not who I was,
though some principle of being
abides, from which I struggle
not to stray.
When I look behind,
as I am compelled to look
before I can gather strength
to proceed on my journey,
I see the milestones dwindling
toward the horizon
and the slow fires trailing
from the abandoned camp-sites,
over which scavenger angels
wheel on heavy wings.
Oh, I have made myself a tribe
out of my true affections,
and my tribe is scattered!
How shall the heart be reconciled
to its feast of losses?
In a rising wind
the manic dust of my friends,
those who fell along the way,
bitterly stings my face,
Yet I turn, I turn,
exulting somewhat,
with my will intact to go
wherever I need to go,
and every stone on the road
precious to me.
In my darkest night,
when the moon was covered
and I roamed through wreckage,
a nimbus-clouded voice
directed me:
“Live in the layers,
not on the litter.”
Though I lack the art
to decipher it,
no doubt the next chapter
in my book of transformations
is already written.
I am not done with my changes.

5 comments:

kbrow said...

This is just marvellous. Thank you for such a gift on a Saturday morning, after a phone fight with my mother over politics and religion.

Reya Mellicker said...

I'm glad it helped. x

Linda Sue said...

Your photographs - stunning as always!

Steve Reed said...

Wonderful. Who IS done with their changes, after all?

A friend of mine was Stanley Kunitz's personal assistant. Can you imagine how interesting that job must have been?!

Reya Mellicker said...

How cool, Steve. Wow.