POND SONG 4.59

Our eros for the divine is met with the divine agape for us. G&B 276

under crow calls the pond rises__archipelagoes of ice

drift in the empty spaces__what trouvaille may suffice

words are floating things (Han Yu)__in the dark water between

immense slabs a whiter white__a bufflehead dives unseen

Pond Song 4.58

We are returned to a sort of fertile formlessness. G&B 261

This is Thoreau’s sweet edge__bottom solid milky ice

cuts one happily in two__sunglare on both sides

fact and feeling (Cavell)__the wonder of it is I

hear ducks splashing over there__low tide is still high

Pond Song 4.57

“…flow of the overdeterminate origin in us…” G&B 262

I see out and about myself__Journal 7 January ‘57

solitary vigilant__Thoreau between earth and heaven

nature his divine other__today the pond’s brushed steel

snow crust under my stick__I’m not sure what I feel

rain spots the sketch pad__pencilled notes smeared black

what was there is not now__the bufflehead’s white back

Pond Song 4.56

The primordial origin is not abstract or indefinite, or indeterminate, but overdetermined as overfull. G&B 257

rain seethes at low tide__shallows show the bottom

background roar of the bypass__I start to hum dumb-

struck by a silence out there__ Giacometti-like iron-

y and delicacy of reserve__the spare blue blade of a heron

splendor formae overplus__nothing prepared me for this

David Jones the sun in his face__Meng inured to the process