Staggered terraces
behind us now,
crossing the sand
in almost no moonlight,
stepping word by word
strong as we can.
And you are the river
I’ll have to swim
to get to the other side.

2.
That’s my true home,
I belong wherever I’m not.
Hence journey, quest,
and all that secret pilgrimage
that keeps me where I am.

3.
One of the princely Livingstons
built his house on the west
bank of the Hudson, so far away
it took him so long to come
back across that he missed
the big gathering for Lafayette.
So they called his house Wrongside,
the name stuck, the house stands,
they brought me to it
the first day I came to this place
sixty years ago and made me come back.

4.
Carl Sauer insists that humans
are littoral creatures,
live on seacoasts and riverbanks.
And we know that for people
who live on any shore
the other side is the one that counts,
comes in their dreams,
summons their feeble ships to cross.
The other side is real
and where we are is just an accident,
oasis at best, be careful
of the water, only the trees
really know how to stay.

15-16 March 2021