God alive! I'm not beyond coherence:
mindfully, I walk among my poems
like a disobliging abbot
among his humble monks.
I shepherd my obedient flock
with a staff that's bursting into bloom.
The keys to the mysterious garden
hang clinking at my belt.
I ponder hopefully, I pronounce.
Metalogical? Maybe the angel
that stands in the presence of God to sing,
or the oxen that don't even recognise God,
way beyond thought as they moo and bellow.
But I'm no angel of brightness,
no cruel serpent, no idiot bull.
From generation to generation
this human language has been spoken:
I love its rigourous freedom,
I love its twisting laws...
O may my last expiring groan
be wrapped inside an articulate ode!