Compulsive Insistence upon Repetition in the Face of Reasoned Opposition, and: String River
- Compulsive Insistence upon Repetition in the Face of Reasoned Opposition, and: String River
Compulsive Insistence upon Repetition in the Face of Reasoned Opposition
Old shapes—ships and cars and all intentionsTime has rusted out: Retention of purpose past its point.Whose point was it? Ours or our enemy's?No matter now. We engineered reverse to that,Held left to right up in the nightmare mirror,Had success and called our new imaginings our victory. But never sang the soft child's reasoning thatEverything built in time breaks down in time,But for you, for you, little rhyme, little rhyme.
String River
String river washes new life over rocksOut to a sea where never seen again.Its harmonies repeat so closely they are monotoneIn arguing they will never end with leaving.And anyone who kneels here to drinkBows deeper than the rocks beneath,Where they tumble overheadAs the water holds them in the skyAnd with a different talent sings each one. [End Page 39]
Wyatt Prunty's latest poetry collection is Couldn't Prove, Had to Promise. He lives in Sewanee, Tennessee, where he is the Ogden D. Carlton Professor in Sewanee's English Department. He directs the Sewanee Writers' Conference and the Tennessee Fellowship series and edits the Johns Hopkins: Poetry and Fiction series.
