Shabistari and The Secret Garden

by Robert Bly

Robert Bly

I can't stop praising Shabistari for bringing
The gnat's and the elephant's legs close to each other.
Next I want Sunday to be brought closer to Monday.

Suppose a bit of straw were able to marry the wind.
Haven't you noticed those good marriages when
The wind and the chaff go down the road together?

When a poem takes me to that place where
No story ever happens twice, all I want
Is a warm room, and a thousand years of thought.

Conrad said the dark swimmer did reach his ship.
If we sink into the suffering that's right for us,
Our dreams will have all that Adam and Eve wept for.

Amazing things do happen. One morning Kierkegaard
Explains exactly what ressentiment is
And the mouse agrees to marry everyone in the room.

Robert, those high spirits don't prove you are
A close friend of truth; but you have learned to drive
Your buggy over the prairies of human sorrow.





Last updated October 09, 2022