I've adopted the following
as my 36th birthday poem.
Once in awhile I come
across a poem that truly
resonates within my soul.
"The Layers" is one example.
"The Layers"
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 maniac 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,
and every stone on the road
precious to me,
In my darkest night,
when the moon was covered
and I roamed through the wreckage
a nimbus-clouded voice
directed me:
"Live in the layers,
not in 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.
-Stanley Kunitz
Yes, I am not done with my changes
....the next chapter awaits.
March 16, 2003
