4041. HERE'S HOW IT GOES

HERE'S HOW IT GOES

Tell yourself a hundred times a hundred things:

how the stream and its water runs, where the new

light comes from, how the starling learns that song.

Expunge nothing  -  from your memory, no failure,

no fault. Write those spinning words that come,

accompanied or not by their musics and graces.

It will all come to you more times than one, like

a chain-letter sent from some annoying source,

the letter returning anew after each time you've

sent. There's just nothing you can do.

-

A grand cathedral was never this vast  -  those

columns by Bernini never meant any more than

this. I have been given the writer's mantle to

use and explore. I take my first steps and

am always seeking more - yes,

a hundred times more.