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Rereading Old Writing

Looking back, the language scribbles. What's hidden, having been said? Almost everything? Thrilling to think There was a secret there somewhere, A bird singing in the heart's forest.

Two people sitting by a river; Sunlight, shadow, some pretty trees; Death dappling in the flowing water; Beautiful to think about, Romance inscrutable as music.

Out of the ground, in New Jersey, my mother's Voice, toneless, wailing--beseeching? Crying out nothing? A winter vapor, Out of the urn, rising in the yellow Air, an ashy smear on the page.

The quiet room floats on the waters, Buoyed up gently on the daylight; The branch I can see stirs a little; Nothing to think about; writing Is a way of being happy.

What's going to be in this place? A person entering a room? Saying something? Signaling? Writing a formula on a blackboard. Something not to be understood.

David Ferry

September 28, 2000

Looking back, the language scribbles. What’s hidden, having been said? Almost everything? Thrilling to think There was a secret there somewhere, A bird singing in the heart’s forest.

Two people sitting by a river; Sunlight, shadow, some pretty trees; Death dappling in the flowing water; Beautiful to think about, Romance inscrutable as music.

Out of the ground, in New Jersey, my mother’s Voice, toneless, wailing–beseeching? Crying out nothing? A winter vapor, Out of the urn, rising in the yellow Air, an ashy smear on the page.

The quiet room floats on the waters, Buoyed up gently on the daylight; The branch I can see stirs a little; Nothing to think about; writing Is a way of being happy.

What’s going to be in this place? A person entering a room? Saying something? Signaling? Writing a formula on a blackboard. Something not to be understood.

David Ferry


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