How to Know Two
- How to Know Two
We used to think that if we knew one, we knew two, because one and one are two.We are finding that we must learn a great deal more about “and.”
—sir arthur stanley eddington
Look around, brother;there is no stranger who isstranger than you, no
familiar who’s morefamiliar. The cup’s the holeas much as the clay,
the held as much asthe holding. Your hands, they humteeth-buzzing against
sweet contingency,like a whistled spear of grass,tone against silence, pause
against tone, hymnedand holy in the split-tonguegarden of our blue
undecideds.Wherever there is sky thereis something rising,
something falling. That’sall the comfort you need, allthe comfort you get. [End Page 448]
john blair’s story collection, American Standard, was the winner of the Drue Heinz Literature Prize. He has also published two books of poetry, The Occasions of Paradise and The Green Girls. His poems and stories have appeared in Poetry, The Sewanee Review, and The Antioch Review.
