- Atonement
—after Hölderlin
Being, you holiness, how many times have I shaken From its stillness your godly calm, So you learned from me so much About the hidden, grieving depths of life.
Forgive, forget this nothing, the same as these clouds Blotting out, up there, the peaceful moon. So I go as they go, while you remain, Beauty that shines on and on, the sweetest light. [End Page 252]
Daniel Tobin is the author of eight books of poems, most recently From Nothing and the forthcoming Blood Labors. He is also the author of the critical studies Awake in America, Passage to the Center, and On Serious Earth as well as several edited volumes and a book of versions from the German poet Paul Celan. His awards include the Massachusetts Book Award and creative writing fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation. He is a faculty member at Emerson College in the Department of Writing, Literature, and Publishing. daniel_tobin@emerson.edu.