Friday, August 21, 2009
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Monday, August 10, 2009
Shot Glass
I'll never forget the day, this beautiful woman
right out in the office said I was "sneaky":
I didn't know I was sneaky: I didn't feel
sneaky: but there are mechanisms below our
mechanisms, so I assume the lady was right:
living with that has not helped my progress
in the world, if there is any such thing,
progress, I mean: also it has hurt my image
of myself: I have used up so much fellow-
feeling on the general --- all of which I have
forgotten specifically about, as have the
fellows --- no offices, no clear images or
demonstrations --- I don't understand why that
one remark holds its place ungivingly in me:
and now to talk about it, admit to the world
(my reading public, as it happens) that I am
scarred by an old, old wound about to heal and
about to bleed: this may do confessional good
but I will no longer appear perfect to others:
conceivably, that could be a good thing:
others may be scarred, too, but who wants to
be like them: one should: perhaps I really
do, because lonely splendor is devastatingly
shiny but basically hard and cold, marble
walls and glistening floors: one comfort,
which I am reluctant to relish, is that the
lady is now dead --- surely, I am sorry about that,
she was a person of intelligence and
discernment, which is one reason she hurt me
so bad --- well, but I mean, she won't hurt
anybody else: she probably did enough good
in her life that the Lord will forgive her:
I am trying to forgive her myself: after all
she left me some room for improvement and
a sense of what to work on...
- A.R. Ammons
I'll never forget the day, this beautiful woman
right out in the office said I was "sneaky":
I didn't know I was sneaky: I didn't feel
sneaky: but there are mechanisms below our
mechanisms, so I assume the lady was right:
living with that has not helped my progress
in the world, if there is any such thing,
progress, I mean: also it has hurt my image
of myself: I have used up so much fellow-
feeling on the general --- all of which I have
forgotten specifically about, as have the
fellows --- no offices, no clear images or
demonstrations --- I don't understand why that
one remark holds its place ungivingly in me:
and now to talk about it, admit to the world
(my reading public, as it happens) that I am
scarred by an old, old wound about to heal and
about to bleed: this may do confessional good
but I will no longer appear perfect to others:
conceivably, that could be a good thing:
others may be scarred, too, but who wants to
be like them: one should: perhaps I really
do, because lonely splendor is devastatingly
shiny but basically hard and cold, marble
walls and glistening floors: one comfort,
which I am reluctant to relish, is that the
lady is now dead --- surely, I am sorry about that,
she was a person of intelligence and
discernment, which is one reason she hurt me
so bad --- well, but I mean, she won't hurt
anybody else: she probably did enough good
in her life that the Lord will forgive her:
I am trying to forgive her myself: after all
she left me some room for improvement and
a sense of what to work on...
- A.R. Ammons
Wednesday, August 05, 2009
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