A friend of mine found this poem, and I love it—as it was expected I would. I’m not generally a Tom Robbins fan, but this is a gem.
“I’m a gypsy in spirit only,”
she confessed.
“I travel in gardens and bedrooms,
basements and attics,
around corners,
through doorways and windows,
along sidewalks, up stairs,
over carpets, down drainpipes,
in the sky, with friends,
lovers and children and heroes;
perceived, remembered,
imagined, distorted, and clarified.”- Tom Robbins
i speak in i and you and me
in him and her and he and she;
i speak in them and they and mine
in yours and theirs (one time in thine).
i speak in which and what and my
in who and whom (at least, i try)
yet i, despite such fluency,
can’t speak in we.
i spent the morning
slaying spiders
(i’m sorry, anne;
they had to die).
The Bridge Builder
An old man, going a lone highway,
Came, at the evening, cold and gray,
To a chasm, vast, and deep, and wide,
Through which was flowing a sullen tide.The old man crossed in the twilight dim;
The sullen stream had no fear for him;
But he turned, when safe on the other side,
And built a bridge to span the tide.“Old man,” said a fellow pilgrim, near,
“You are wasting strength with building here;
Your journey will end with the ending day;
You never again will pass this way;
You’ve crossed the chasm, deep and wide-
Why build you this bridge at the evening tide?”The builder lifted his old gray head:
“Good friend, in the path I have come,” he said,
“There followeth after me today,
A youth, whose feet must pass this way.This chasm, that has been naught to me,
To that fair-haired youth may a pitfall be.
He, too, must cross in the twilight dim;
Good friend, I am building this bridge for him.”— Will Allen Dromgoole
An old man, going a lone highway,
Came, at the evening, cold and gray,
To a chasm, vast, and deep, and wide,
Through which was flowing a sullen tide.
The old man crossed in the twilight dim;
The sullen stream had no fear for him;
But he turned, when safe on the other side,
And built a bridge to span the tide.
“Old man,” said a fellow pilgrim, near,
“You are wasting strength with building here;
Your journey will end with the ending day;
You never again will pass this way;
You’ve crossed the chasm, deep and wide-
Why build you this bridge at the evening tide?”
The builder lifted his old gray head:
“Good friend, in the path I have come,” he said,
“There followeth after me today,
A youth, whose feet must pass this way.
This chasm, that has been naught to me,
To that fair-haired youth may a pitfall be.
He, too, must cross in the twilight dim;
Good friend, I am building this bridge for him.”
sometimes, the heart doesn’t break; bits of it crumble around the edges, almost imperceptibly, and you go on, unimpaired for all practical purposes, but painfully aware of the fine layer of dust you tread through.
sometimes i don’t want to worry about writing well. i just want to toss handfuls of words onto the blank page without considering how they will fall; pull everything out of my pockets, and let it scatter and settle as it will.
there’s things i oughta be doing,
places i oughta go;
but one hand is twirling my hair, and
one foot is gummed to the road.
