|
Poetry
Chaikhana
|
|
|
|
About Jane HirshfieldTimeline (Contemporary) |
![Jane Hirshfield, Jane Hirshfield poetry, Secular or Eclectic, Secular or Eclectic poetry, poetry, [TRADITION SUB2] poetry, Buddhist poetry](images/Hirshfiel_sm.jpg) |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Original Language |
The Envoy
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
One day in that room, a small rat.
Two days later, a snake. Who, seeing me enter, whipped the long stripe of his body under the bed, then curled like a docile house-pet. I don't know how either came or left. Later, the flashlight found nothing. For a year I watched as something -- terror? happiness? grief? -- entered and then left my body. No knowing how it came in. Not knowing how it went out. It hung where words could not reach it. It slept where light could not go. Its scent was neither snake nor rat, neither sensualist nor ascetic. There are openings in our lives of which we know nothing. Through them the belled herds travel at will, long-legged and thirsty, covered with foreign dust.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
| Please support the Poetry Chaikhana, as well as the authors and publishers of sacred poetry, by purchasing some of the recommended books through the links on this site. Thank you! |
Ivan
M. Granger's original poetry, stories and commentaries are Copyright ©
2002 - 2008 by Ivan M. Granger.
All other material is copyrighted by the respective authors, translators and/or
publishers.
