Rogue Elephant poem – A. R. Ammons poems | Poetry Monster

The reason to be autonomous is to stand there,
a cleared instrument, ready to act, to search

the moral realm and actual conditions for what
needs to be done and to do it: fine, the

best, if it works out, but if, like a gun, it
comes in handy to the wrong choice, why then

you see the danger in the effective: better
then an autonomy that stands and looks about,

negotiating nothing, the supreme indifferences:
is anything to be gained where as much is lost:

and if for every action there is an equal and
opposite reaction has the loss been researched

equally with the gain: you can see how the
milling actions of millions could come to a

buzzard-like glide as from a coincidental,
warm bottom of water stuck between chilled

peaks: it is not so easy to say, OK, go on
out and act: who, doing what, to what or

whom: just a minute: should the bunker be
bombed (if it stores gas): should all the

rattlers die just because they rattle: if I
hear the young gentleman vomiter roaring down

the hall in the men’s room, should I go and
inquire of him, reducing him to my care: no

wonder the great sayers (who say nothing) sit
about in inaccessible states of mind: no

wonder still wisdom and catatonia appear to
exchange places occasionally: but if anything

were easy, our easy choices soon would carry
away our ignorance with the world-better

let the mixed-up mix and let the surface shine
with all the possibilities, each in itself.

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• On The High Price Of Fish by William Cowper by William Cowper
• On the Grasshopper (From The Greek) by William Cowper by William Cowper
• On The Death Of The Bishop Of Ely. Anno Aet. 17. (Translated From Milton) by William Cowper by William Cowper
• On The Death Of Mrs. Throckmorton’s Bullfinch by William Cowper by William Cowper
• On The Death Of Damon. (Translated From Milton) by William Cowper by William Cowper
• On The Benefit Received By His Majesty From Sea-Bathing, In The Year 1789 by William Cowper by William Cowper
• On The Author Of Letters On Literature by William Cowper by William Cowper
• On The Astrologers (From The Greek) by William Cowper by William Cowper
• On Receiving Heyne’s Virgil From Mr. Hayley by William Cowper by William Cowper
• On Receiving Hayley’s Picture by William Cowper by William Cowper
• On Receipt Of My Mother’s Picture by William Cowper by William Cowper
• On Pedigree. From Epicharmus by William Cowper by William Cowper
• On Pallas Bathing, From A Hymn Of Callimachus by William Cowper by William Cowper
• On One Ignorant And Arrogant (Translated From Owen) by William Cowper by William Cowper
• On Observing Some Names Of Little Note Recorded In The Biographia Britannica by William Cowper by William Cowper
• On Niobe (From The Greek) by William Cowper by William Cowper
• On Mrs. Montague’s Feather Hangings by William Cowper by William Cowper
• On Miltiades by William Cowper by William Cowper
• On Late Acquired Wealth (From The Greek) by William Cowper by William Cowper
• On Invalids (From The Greek) by William Cowper by William Cowper

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