8/29/2009

The ladder

In response to the “Mirror image” (Zwierciadlo) a poem by Tadeusz Rozewicz.


The ladder

Maestro Tadeusz, I respectfully disagree

with your sad poem

about the needless noise

of questions and answers

that lead to the unavoidable silence.


Questions pile up

one upon another.

All needed, all building a structure upon which

one has to keep climbing up

not so much as to reach above the darkness

that /I must reluctantly agree / bits our ankles

but to continue upward not missing a bar.

A noble definition of a human being:

he who does not skip a step.

A ladder of questions. And answers. And questions.


Once it commences, the climb cannot be stopped

since it would precipitate the fall.

That’s the rule only a few hear and practice.


Rembrandt’s old face is a necessary coda

before his next movement can begin itself

in somebody standing in front of his painting,

or just writing about it.


Maestro, silence does not have to indicate

emptiness and despair. Please.

It is rather a gathering of energy

ready to be experienced

on the climb up,

endless,

and so human.

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