i like...

from Wilbur, Richard. 'An Introductory Note.' Collected Poems: 1943 - 2004.


'I once asked Wallace Stevens whether he liked such-and-such a poem of his, and he heartily replied, "I like all my poems." Every poet has moments of feeling that way, moved by gratitude for all the times when he got something decently said, or hoped to have done so, and could in conscience add another poem to his manuscript. That, I think, is the mood in which a collected poems - as opposed to a stern winnowed selected - should be assembled.'


Well, since the man himself has already declared his affections, who am i to scorn any published poem of his, however slight it may appear?


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from Ceremony and Other Poems (1950)


Parable

I read how Quixote in his random ride
Came to a crossing once, and lest he lose
The purity of chance, would not decide

Whither to fare, but wished his horse to choose.
For glory lay wherever he might turn.
His head was light with pride, his horse's shoes

Were heavy, and he headed for the barn.



Epistemology

..................I

Kick at the rock, Sam Johnson, break your bones:
But cloudy, cloudy is the stuff of stones.

..................II

We milk the cow of the world, and as we do
We whisper in her ear, "You are not true."


[Geeky editorial note: 'Epistemology' reminds me of this time when i asked a student of mine, easily the brightest student in her cohort, why she was not doing the new 'A' Level subject for the creme de la creme of Singaporean JC students known as 'Knowledge & Inquiry', aka Philosophy 101. Her answer? "Because I didn't want to have to keep asking myself whether the chair I'm sitting on is real."]



from Advice to a Prophet and Other Poems (1961)


Two Voices in a Meadow

......A Milkweed

Anonymous as cherubs,
Over the crib of God,
White seeds are floating
Out of my burst pod.
What power had I
Before I learned to yield?
Shatter me, great wind:
I shall possess the field.

.....A Stone

As casual as cow-dung
Under the crib of God,
I lie where chance would have me,
Up to the ears in sod.
Why should I move? To move
Befits a light desire.
The sill of Heaven would founder
Did such as I aspire.



from 'Poems For Children and Others': Opposites

..................12

What is the opposite of two?
A lonely me, a lonely you.


..................17

There's more than one way to be right
About the opposite of white,
And those who merely answer black
Are very, very single-track.
They make one want to scream, "I beg
Your pardon, but within an egg
(A fact known to the simplest folk)
The opposite of white is yolk!"


...................18

The opposite of doughnut? Wait
A minute while I meditate.

This isn't easy. Ah, I've found it!
A cookie with a hole around it.


....................22

The opposite of a cloud would be
A white reflection in the sea,

Or a huge blueness in the air,
Caused by a cloud's not being there.


...................39

The opposite of opposite?
That's much too difficult. I quit.



from More Opposites

....................9

What is the opposite of road?
I'd say the answer is abode.
"What's an abode?" you ask. I'd say
It's ground that doesn't lead away -
Some patch of earth where you abide
Because it makes you satisfied.

Abodes don't take you anywhere,
Because you are already there.


....................14

The opposite of robber? Come,
You know the answer. Don't be dumb!
While robbers take things for a living,
Philanthropists are fond of giving.
"And yet," you say, "that's not quite true;
Philanthropists are takers, too,
And often have been very greedy
Before they thought to help the needy.

Well, let's be obvious, then: the op-
Posite of robber is cop.
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