"Entrance"
Whoever you are: step out of doors tonight,
Out of the room that lets you feel secure.
Infinity is open to your sight.
Whoever you are.
With eyes that have forgotten how to see
From viewing things already too well-known,
Lift up into the dark a huge, black tree
And put it in the heavens: tall, alone.
And you have made the world and all you see.
It ripens like the words still in your mouth.
And when at last you comprehend its truth,
Then close your eyes and gently set it free.
(After Rilke)
—Dana Gioia
This is such a cool idea, interactive poetry.
ReplyDeleteIt's cloudy here. But I comprehended a truth, not the Truth, but a truth which is the truth.
Whether it be poetry or anything else. We get stale from viewing things with "too well-known" eyes. I lifted up into the huge black tree and understood that I made my reality. But that is a truth I already had. So I closed my and gently let that idea free. That's what makes this poem so great. We can clear are minds and enter something with new eyes, or new Is. New us's. This is where the truth lies, in our mind clear of biases because our biases lie.
It interests me that he writes this to a reader who is reading poetry. I, too, love the interaction. I feel as though an openness occurs in the very reading of this poem. An act on an act. A direction for the reader to follow. A challenge. One that the reader may already know is there...
ReplyDeleteBeautiful sound when read aloud. "you have made the world and all you see"...we create our own reality, keep searching for the truth and then "gently set it free". Great lines.