Jerome Rothenberg
A POEM OF MIRACLES
for Jack Collom
1 /
A miracle
more ordinary than
the grass
under our feet
the hot sun
as it dazzles
eyes & skin
so many memories
blending into one
we have no place
to go but where
we are no nearer
to the end
than to the source
2 /
A miracle
open on all sides
toward which
the mind moves slowly
& the eye
as in a dream
opens & shuts
clouds without rain
cover the sun
the animal that sleeps
over our skylight
knows neither rest
nor waking
only a dream
3 /
Turn of the hand
by which a perfect
bird comes into
view a flight
over the heads of some
no mystery
in what we see
we walk away
from it no sooner
gone when something
ever bright
a flash of wing
assails us
heretofore concealed
4 /
The real comes first
the fancy a far second
hard to tell apart
still harder in the dark
the eye too weak
the skin still weaker
like the mind
the origin of species
hides its birth
the contours of the real
the hand feels
& the eye imagines
only later
in singular pursuit
5/
A miracle
to make the seen
forerunner
of the unseen
the animal you see
its metamorphosis
deferred
imagination
lurks here
brings concealments
into light
the world inside
the mind
turns upside down
6 /
A miracle
to live a life
in celebration
knowing fear
& feeling death
he finds the poem
more to his taste
they call it fancy
a game of chance
or choice
that pulls the mind
back from the literal
opens a door
to the imagined real
7 /
A miracle
from which
the other miracle
proceeds
the owl living
night long
in the palm tree
a flight of pelicans
brown shadows
east of where the sun
touches the ocean
a miracle of distant bodies
voices from the sky
sounds absent words
8 /
A miracle
the sun crushed
by its clouds
the mind retreats from
blood lines
staining the horizon
raining down
the word is firmament
a cracked sky
over the sun & moon
imagined trackers
behind which
light seeps forth
a field of stars
9 /
A miracle
our lives that pass
a barrier
the evil wind
is not so evil
but brings us words
to string into a poem
nowhere to go
but up & out
the miracle
even to know
that knowing ends
having all tried & failed
against the odds
10 /
A miracle of darkness
hides the light
itself a miracle
in which infinities
escape us
& we plunge on
in hot pursuit
the ocean capped
by scarlet clouds
a miracle or not
the sand below
is pink
or mauve or amber
open & shut
11 /
A miracle
the light a miracle
the night a miracle
the sea a miracle
the tree a miracle
the bird a miracle
the word a miracle
the rain a miracle
the brain a miracle
the time a miracle
the rhyme a miracle
the breath a miracle
the death a miracle
the light a miracle
12 /
A miracle
to have been here
& to vanish
as the time ends
no more real
than anything we know
or run from
in my hand
all touch astounds me
color of the dead
is also touch
their faces & their voices
press against me
touch by touch
13 /
a miracle
that words are green still
after an age of dryness
that the rising sap
fills leaves & shoots
the sun still bright
in the engulfing dark
is an illusion barely known
a deeper darkness
hiding all
the firmament unhinged
a miracle
that from this transient place
a universe is born
14 /
sheer accident denotes
a further miracle
the dish falls
from my hand
& finds the ground
an apple shows
the marks of teeth
a rush of things
more real than words
or less
the time has come
to add up what we know
it floats in air
I reach for it
15 /
the grass sweats
words turn green
a finger signals
a new miracle the sky
leads into empty space
the mind is helpless
to address or fill
only in the little world
can we both love
& kill the solipsist
is king here
waiting for the end
of time & knowing
that it’s endless
16 /
a miracle
by which the dead
animal & man
lie fallen
never to rise again
but sanguine
in their dissolution
the slow progression
into flesh
& out again
continues while the world
does only then
no trace of mind remains
truer than this
17 /
a miracle
the small worlds
& the vast
the way the blood appears
sudden & hot
the sun at daybreak
lighting the wound
the firmament persists
over the sun & moon
the deeper image that it hides
where light & dark
change places a time
that makes a mystery
of time & space
18 /
A miracle
to place a foot
on solid ground
& know the earth
rotates 1000 miles a day
at the equator barely
an inch at either pole
the ordinary
rise & fall
of how we breathe & move
steps taken
in the rush & crush
of galaxies
dark more than light
19 /
if time is endless
what we feel as time
deceives us
with the miracle
of what we feel
the ordinary push of days
against the grain
a miracle
the lie of beauty
dazzles us
deceitful elf
duende & capricho
hiding pain & hunger
ready to explode
20 /
a miracle
the earth collapsing
into ruin
while the larger world
survives or say
the human ceases
gone astray
& leaves a trace behind
a breath or whisper
ready to become a word
the picture in the mind
is not a picture
until you call it forth
a pixel at a time
21/
a miracle
where none exists
to call your own
mind into being
then to touch the hairs
the skin from which
they spring
the ordinary smells
that sex brings
& the heat
rising from the depths
a history contained
a touch of fingers
not the first or last
22/
the final letter
names the end
& vanishes
the miracle of sound
absorbed the body
freed to speak
its world
a miracle
the tread of foot
on earth the earth
a further miracle
the firmament
no longer there
to stunt our view
23 /
a miracle
of sequence numbers
covering a wall
the sky itself a field
of numbers
numbers as an alphabet
a game of numbers
lightly drawn & lightly
peppering the mind
inscribed in dreams
the dream of hunger
leading to a world
counted & numbered
engrafted in the flesh
24 /
a miracle
the flowers in the garden
grow tacky
& decline the path
to the miraculous
not what we thought
or ever reckoned
but to draw breath
day by day
waiting for the breath
to be exhausted
the flow of blood to dry
the miracle of death
the greatest miracle
25 /
a miracle
to wake up from a dream
& count the dream
itself a miracle
the flower in the dream
as ordinary as
the flower awake
& spoken in your voice
the word is such a flower
broken & adrift
the sound reverberating
more a miracle
than what the eye sees
or the mind knows
26/
a miracle
to have been spared this far
the beauty in the little known
the everyday repeated
at a finger’s touch
to translate what we know
to what’s barbaric vast & wild
the book of witness
opens all the words we have
are theirs & lead us
eyeless whispering
the years themselves
a miracle
over against a world of pain
27/
coda
for Diane
A miracle
the unseen
overtaking us
the larger world
in darkness
darker than the mystery
of birth
the miracle resides
in what we see
& touch so good
to be here
& to bow to you
my dearest friend
in darkness
as the poet said
30.viii.11