Sunday, March 25, 2012

Ode to Garlic

By William Stafford

Sudden, it comes for you
in the cave of yourself where you know
and are lifted by important events.

Say you are dining and it happens:
Soaring like an eagle, you are
pierced by a message from the midst of life:

Memory - what holds the days together - touches
your tongue. It is from deep in the earth
and it reaches out kindly, saying, "Hello Old Friend."

It makes alike, all offspring of powerful
forces, part of one great embrace of democracy,
united across every boundary.

You walk out generously, giving it back
in a graceful wave, what you've been given.
Like a child, you breathe on the world, and it shines.

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