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THE ASTONISHMENT OF LIVING
from Lusions (1997)

I saw beneath the spreading elm

two talking girls with rainbows

in their eyes. I saw their lives

on separate shores of the river

yield up their buckets to the falls.

Every drop was bathed in the fragrant

shawls of eglantine. Every leaf, in wind

rising up to comb each branch,

sent a whisper out along the banks --

let go. Lose all the breath in rain

and every strand of light in fog.

Let go of the tongue's crow

until it sings along with rocks

and runnels as if it were divine.

Let go of honored sky and earth.

Let go the horizon in between.

Lose all the sunlit undulations

of the season's wheat. And sing!

Call out to seeds, to grass, to all

that breathes into the pores of stones.

Let go the sovereign moons of space,

the celestial lulls of aureoles,

breathing out a planet,

pulsing out its days.

And where the stars ignite in showers,

let them fall. Recite the moment's song

that tomorrow wind will bring in squalls.

Free the century's melody as you would

a line or burden down a well.

Allow the astonishment of living

one reed or willow, feeding

swallows through a hungry night

until they weary of elation.

Let all buckets fill, all loss be light.

I saw two girls weaving rainbows in their eyes,

and daughtering in me their dreams, I grew

astonished by all conception,

the frail grandeur of life.

"The Astonishment of Living" © 1997 James Ragan
from Lusions, Grove Press, 1997

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