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Thursday, October 25, 2012

Poetry Thursday: Stanley Kunitz

This, hands down, is my favorite poem toward the Thanksgiving season.

Take the time to hear Stanley Kunitz speak his profound witness here.

Enjoy, my tribe. Thank you for traveling with me.

The Layers
by Stanley Kunitz

I have walked through many lives,
some of them my own, 
and I am not who I was, 
though some principle of being
abides, from which I struggle 
not to stray. When I look behind, 
as I am compelled to look 
before I can gather strength 
to proceed on my journey, 
I see the milestones dwindling 
toward the horizon 
and the slow fires trailing 
from the abandoned camp-sites, 
over which scavenger angels 
wheel on heavy wings. 
Oh, I have made myself a tribe 
out of my true affections, 
and my tribe is scattered! 
How shall the heart be reconciled 
to its feast of losses? 
In a rising wind 
the manic dust of my friends, 
those who fell along the way, 
bitterly stings my face. 
Yet I turn, I turn, 
exulting somewhat, 
with my will intact to go 
wherever I need to go, 
and every stone on the road 
precious to me. 
In my darkest night, 
when the moon was covered 
and I roamed through wreckage, 
a nimbus-clouded voice 
directed me: 
"Live in the layers, 
not on the litter." 
Though I lack the art 
to decipher it, 
no doubt the next chapter 
in my book of transformations 
is already written. 
I am not done with my changes.

[Image via Fly Brother, my partner and friend in all metaphysical travels]

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