Thursday, September 10, 2009

Snake
When it seemed to me that whatever was holdingme there pretending to let me go but then bringing me back each time as though I had never been goneand knowing me knowing me unseen among those rockswhen it seemed to me that whatever that might be had not changed for all my absence and still was not changingonce in the middle of the day late in that timeI stood up from the writings unfinished on the tablein the echoless stone room looking over the valleyI opened the door and on the stone doorsillwhere every so often through the years I had comeupon a snake lying out in the sunlight I foundthe empty skin like smoke on the stone with the daystill moving in it and when I touched it and liftedall of it the whole thing seemed lighter than a singlebreath and then I was gone and that time had changed and when I came again many years had passed and I sawOne day along the doorsill outside that same rooma green snake lying in the sunlight watching meeven from the eyes the skin loosens leaving the colorsthat have passed through it and the colors shine after it has gone--W.S.Merwin

I believe my connection with this poem comes from the depth within it's words. Merwin isn't merely talking about a snake, but also something much more grandious and this evokes emotion in me.

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