4.11.2021

like rough objections

The water, high for autumn, carries thought 
downstream past grassy banks and fallen trees, 
through weirs of river stones and branches, caught 
like rough objections to a fluid ease. 
 
It’s not pellucid, nor the mind’s ideal— 
or is it? Obstacles can make us wise; 
perfection may be gauged by how you feel, 
as beauty’s proven in beholders’ eyes. 
 
I step into the river, running swift 
and frothy, swirling, magnified by light; 
it’s buoyant, though, providing flow and lift, 
resistance furnishing the greater height. 
 
And now I think my heart’s contrary moods— 
each eddying pool, dark current, headstrong act— 
aren’t merely detours and vicissitudes, 
but purchase for a leaping, muscled pact. 
 
[Catharine Savage Brosman {1934- } from “4” in ‘A Colorado Suite’, from Breakwater: Poems]

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