An Explanation of America

From An Explanation of America: LAIR

Robert Pinsky

Inexhaustible, delicate, as if Without source or medium, daylight Undoes the mind; the infinite,

Empty actual is too bright, Scattering to where the road Whispers, through a mile of woods …

Later, how quiet the house is: Dusk-like and refined, The sweet Phoebe-note

Piercing from the trees; The calm globe of the morning, Things to read or to write

Ranged on a table; the brain A dark, stubborn current that breathes Blood, a deaf wadding,

The hands feeding it paper And sensations of wood or metal On its own terms. Trying to read

I persist a while, finish the recognition By my breath of a dead giant's breath-- Stayed by the space of a rhythm,

Witnessing the blue gulf of the air.

© 2020 Princeton University Press (Ebook): 9780691215129

Release date

Ebook: June 30, 2020