Monday, January 3, 2011

You Come to a Gentle Indifference About Being Thought Either a Fool or Someone with Valuable Secrets







A VOICE AT A SEANCE

Anthony Hecht

It is rather strange to be speaking, but I know you are there
Wanting to know, as if it were worth knowing.
Nor is it important that I died in combat
In a good cause of an indifferent one.
Such things, it may surprise you, are not regarded.
Something too much of this.

You are bound to be disappointed,
Wanting to know, are there any trees?
It is all different from what you suppose,
And the darkness is not darkness exactly,
But patience, silence, withdrawal, the sad knowledge
That is was almost impossible not to hurt anyone
Whether by action or inaction.
At the beginning of course there was a sense of loss,
Not of one's own life, but of what seemed
The easy, desirable lives one might have led.
Fame and wealth are hard to achieve,
And goodness even harder;
But the cost of all of them is a familiar deformity
Such as everyone suffers from:
An allergy to certain foods, nausea at the sight of blood,
A slight impediment of speech, shame at one's own body,
A fear of heights or claustrophobia.
What you learn has nothing whatever to do with joy,
Nor with sadness, either. You are mostly silent.
You come to a gentle indifference about being thought
Either a fool or someone with valuable secrets.
It may be that the ultimate wisdom
Lies in saying nothing.
I think I may already have said too much.


7 comments:

  1. I hope the Sibley visitor is well.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Shit, what are we gonna do if the Afghans get their hands on Harry Hamlin?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thank you much. She's fine. Even went to work today against my wishes, but at least she went to the hospital when I begged her to.

    ReplyDelete
  4. That's good to hear, BDR.

    I made a couple of visits to Sibley meself, back in the day. Still have the scars...
    ~

    ReplyDelete
  5. Always loved Bob & Ray; Chris is one of the few beneficiaries of nepotism in that bsns who took it to a new level. I'm on the fence about Ben Stiller who's big but not necessarily advancing the comedy of his brilliant father.

    Glad to hear all's okay at Casa BDR. I've got a stubborn she-who-must-not-be-named who refuses all med rest, too. By my count, she has nearly a full year of unused sick leave saved up from 20+ years employ.

    ReplyDelete