Sunday, December 07, 2008

THE FIRST THING A THING

The first thing a thing

is is a question. One wakes

already in the midst

of things and must go

questing after

the unfolding the being

of each thing successively

presents. What could be further

from mundane than

the forbearance of things? I ask

the light what it

is and it replies

like a mountain, silently

exhuming metaphor from

its path like a gnat. And yet

there remains a thing

to which light is still

beholden. Originary holder, huge

and insoluble all

at once. Give up? Air is our

greatest teacher. Its entire

being consists

in allowances, letting the others

emanate. Only the air is more

humble than mountains. It’s so

tough it hugs all day long.

And yet perhaps

this questing is at the heart

of the problem. Man

turns the cadences

of this sensuous expanse

into things of thought. Surely

the light goes on without

the fiddling of neurons. No one

would claim to know

the mountain more clearly or

even the mystery a tree

brings to our eyes, which allows

the air a voice in quaking.

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