Contraband
The tree of knowledge was the tree of reason.
That's why the taste of itdrove us from Eden.
That fruitwas meant to be dried and milled to a fine powderfor use a pinch at a time, a condiment.
God had probably planned to tell us laterabout this new pleasure. We stuffed our mouths full of it,gorged on but and if and how and againbut, knowing no better.
It's toxic in large quantities; fumesswirled in our heads and around usto form a dense cloud that hardened to steel,a wall between us and God,
Who was Paradise.
Not that God is unreasonable – but reasonin such excess was tyrannyand locked us into its own limits, a polished cellreflecting our own faces.
God liveson the other side of that mirror,but through the slit where the barrier doesn'tquite touch ground, manages stillto squeeze in – as filtered light,splinters of fire, a strain of music heardthen lost, then heard again.
Denise Levertov
Other author posts
From The Roof
This wild night, gathering the washing as if it were flowers animal vines twisting over the line and slapping my face lightly, soundless merriment in the gesticulations of shirtsleeves, I recall out of my joy a night of miserywalking in the d...
Wanting The Moon
Not the moon A floweron the other side of the water The water sweeps past in flood,dragging a whole tree by the hair,a barn, a bridge The flowersings on the far bank
Ein Baum Erzählt von Orpheus
Weißer Tagesanbruch Stille Als das Kräuseln begann, hielt ich es für Seewind, in unser Tal kommend mit Raunen von Salz, von baumlosen Horizonten Aber der weiße Nebelbewegte sich nicht; das Laub meiner Brüder blieb ausgebreitet,regun...
September 1961
This is the year the old ones,the old great onesleave us alone on the road The road leads to the sea We have the words in our pockets,obscure directions The old oneshave taken away the light of their presence,we see it moving away o...
