ACCOUNT OF MY DAYS
Sequence: 7
THIS SHINING
this life so rich with coincidence
anticipation falls apart into shards of urges
the heart's long trial of saying do! and don't!
its bidding and forbidding
ends in a scatter of experience
unrepeatable
accidental
this place the hovering clouds sigh over
as their shadows plot on the meadows
the upper winds' motions
this earth to lie on weighted
by our experience as by a dew
to rise from weightless evaporates
this sky heaving with storms or empty and glaring
these stars piercing distances amazing in their extremity
the prophecies we pattern on their conjunctions
if they seem true our desires seem true
if they lie our hearts lie
if fate had a face it would be modest and regular
it would sympathize itself with our world
anything could happen next or after next
I am as close as your hand when you read this
if everything I've told you were piled together
it would fit in a hole the size a dog could go in
if you look up you see the wind shuffling
thunderheads and a body of birds
your way over the horizon and at night you can plot
a clutch of stars shifting very ancient but still shining