16 | "Irony's quaint consolations" [pantoum]

But what does the blind man see in a mirror?
Alice   if blind   would never have entered
swaddlings of habit grorw drearer and drearer
what does it mean when we say   to be centered?
Alice   if blind   would never have entered
singular folk she would scarcely have met
what does it mean when we say   to be centered?
what you don't know you will rarely forget

singular folk she would scarcely have met
where   by the way   are we heading this cycle?
what you don't know you will rarely forget
what you don't feel   at least cannot rankle
where   by the way   are we heading this cycle?
here on the ship of the world in its sea
what you don't feel   at least cannot rankle
what you don't grasp is unlikely to flee

here on the ship of the world in its sea
voyages move through the deep of the night
what you don't grasp is unlikely to flee
irony's quaint consolations are slight
voyages move through the deep of the night
report from the heart becomes dearer and dearer
irony's quaint consolations are slight
but what does the blind man see in a mirror?



=======

Pantoum beginning and ending with a line borrowed from a ghazal by Shaikh Sa'adi of Shiraz.

This is no. 16 in a sequence, Early Autumn Pantoums