For This

A poem by Adrienne Cecile Rich (1929 – 2012)

If I’ve reached for your lines (I have)

like letters from the dead that stir the nerves

dowsed you for a springhead

to water my thirst

dug into my compost skeletons and petals

you surely meant to catch the light:

-at work in my wormeaten wormwood-raftered

stateless underground

have I a plea?

If I’ve touched your finger

with a ravenous tongue

licked from your palm a rift of salt

if I’ve dreamt or thought you

a pack of blood fresh-drawn

hanging darkred from a hook

higher than my heart

(you who understand transfusion)

where else should I appeal?

A pilot light lies low

while the gas jets sleep

(a cat getting toed from stove

into nocturnal ice)

language uncommon and agile as truth

melts down the most intractable silence

A lighthouse keeper’s ethics:

you tend for all or none

for this you might set your furniture on fire

A this we have blundered over

as if the lamp could be shut off at will

rescue denied for some

and still a lighthouse be

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• Waking In March by Philip Levine by Philip Levine
• Told by Philip Levine by Philip Levine
• They Feed They Lion by Philip Levine by Philip Levine
• Then by Philip Levine by Philip Levine
• The New World by Philip Levine by Philip Levine
• The Helmet by Philip Levine by Philip Levine
• The Distant Winter by Philip Levine by Philip Levine
• Gangrene by Philip Levine by Philip Levine
• Noon by Philip Levine by Philip Levine
• Making Light Of It by Philip Levine by Philip Levine
• Making It Work by Philip Levine by Philip Levine
• Magpiety by Philip Levine by Philip Levine
• Mad Day In March by Philip Levine by Philip Levine
• M. Degas Teaches Art & Science At Durfee Intermediate School–Detroit, 1942 by Philip Levine by Philip Levine
• Late Moon by Philip Levine by Philip Levine
• Late Light by Philip Levine by Philip Levine
• Last Words by Philip Levine by Philip Levine
• Philip Levine – Philip Levine by Philip Levine
• Philip Levine – Philip Levine by Philip Levine
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