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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• The English Flag by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• The Egg-Shell by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• The ‘eathen by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• The Dove of Dacca by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• The Destroyers by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• The Derelict by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• The Deep-Sea Cables by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• The Declaration of London by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• The Dead King by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• The Day’s Work by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• The Craftsman by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• The Conundrum of the Workshops by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• The Comforters by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• The Coastwise Lights by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• The Children’s Song by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• The Captive by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• The Burial by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• The Broken Men by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• The Betrothed by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• The Benefactors by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling

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