The Self and the Mulberry
by Marvin Bell
I wanted to see the self, so I looked at the mulberry.
It had no trouble accepting its limits,
yet defining and redefining a small area
so that any shape was possible, any movement.
It stayed put, but was part of all the air.
I wanted to learn to be there and not there
like the continually changing, slightly moving
mulberry, wild cherry and particularly the willow.
Like the willow, I tried to weep without tears.
Like the cherry tree, I tried to be sturdy and productive.
Like the mulberry, I tried to keep moving.
I couldn’t cry right, couldn’t stay or go.
I kept losing parts of myself like a soft maple.
I fell ill like the elm. That was the end
of looking in nature to find a natural self.
Let nature think itself not manly enough!
Let nature wonder at the mystery of laughter.
Let nature hypothesize man’s indifference to it.
Let nature take a turn at saying what love is!
End of the poem
15 random poems
- Robert Burns: Meg O’ The Mill : Another Version
- A Story At Dusk
- An Hymn To The Morning by Phillis Wheatley
- Владимир Маяковский – Врангеля мы добили… (РОСТА №621)
- Great Men Have Been Among Us by William Wordsworth
- Василий Казин – Эпоха
- Celia Beeding, To the Surgeon by Thomas Carew
- They Tell Of The Warsaw Uprising by Nijole Miliauskaite
- From Far Dakota’s Cañons. by Walt Whitman
- Daryl, My Son by Ronald G. Auguste
- He’s on the porch by Yosa Buson
- Иван Бунин – Ночного неба свод далекий
- Ольга Берггольц – От сердца к сердцу
- Song—A Man’s a Man for a’ that by Robert Burns
- Иван Дмитриев – Смерть и Умирающий
Some external links:
Duckduckgo.com – the alternative in the US
Quant.com – a search engine from France, and also an alternative, at least for Europe
Yandex – the Russian search engine (it’s probably the best search engine for image searches).
