Saturday, September 23, 2006

12 |   "Learning from the stone"     [pantoum]


Learning from the stone
by going to its school
nobody grows alone
this is an olden rule
by going to its school
through auditing its class
this is an olden rule
studied in stone and glass

through auditing its class
you fathom its hidden lesson
studied in stone and glass
the mystery of vergessan
you fathom its hidden lesson
what is the stone's condition?
the mystery of vergessan
it deomonstrates   by omission

what is the stone's condition?
its memory dim and nascent
it deomonstrates   by omission
how dream becomes quiescent
its memory dim and nascent
what's bred   in the bone
how dream becomes quiescent
learning   from the stone




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The first two lines of this poem are borrowed from the first line of the title poem in Joao Cabral de Melo Neto, Education by Stone (2005), the translation from the Portugese by Richard Zenith

vergessan (German): forgetting
"what's bred in the bone will come out in the flesh" is an English proverb

This is no. 12 in a sequence, Early Autumn Pantoums

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