So sometimes less to say
dome of the white church
reflected in the canal
so green was the water that day,
the Christian boatmen
jogging on the shore
o lift me over river
they sang, lift me
over canal, let the dolphins
sway me to the altar
where the chaplain waits,
the man with such tight boots—

but I knew what they meant,
song always means the same thing. 

2.
We learn it early
the East is not a river
the Hudson is
but flows through the sea
by the time we get to know it.
We live on an island,
America is just across the bay.
Paumanok, island of skeptics
who in desperation if not despair
take to song.
                           Make
language pure again,
sing it to sleep.

3.
This is all about
theories of education.
Here is mine:
Surround the child with everything
and leave it alone.
Because you know by now
everything talks.
Silence is fierce listening. 

4.
Forgive me,
I have opinions
which are even
worse than ideas.
It takes hard work
to get rid of them,
purify yourself
from what you think.

5.
And you don’t need to be a Platonist
to climb over that fence—
it’s made of stone
but crumbling, light
shows through it where
you get a glimpse beyond–
a breathless moment, hoist,
and you’re over it
on virgin ground. 

6.
Cool first time this morning,
speaking of over,
my bare skin reminds me
autumn may yet be coming,
not yet, not soon, but some
day I will close this window
and the wasp will have to
fly away hummingly home.

7.
The dome could have been
in Williamsburg or Venice or India,
the canal anywhere,
but the river had to be here,
has to be here
where you hear it,
words can’t lie by themselves
you know, it takes me
or you to skew them, no,
the river has to be here,
running past, running fast,
running to keep true.

8.
Only the dome stays
more or less where it is,
where we see it shimmer
in swift current, lingering,
but notice how the image
has to keep trembling
to stay still. We do it too
and call it breathing.
The dome on the ground
we guess is behind us,
it doesn’t budge, we call it a church.

                                                     16 August 2020