From “The Propositions” by Robert Duncan
3.
This is THE SENDING OUT.
I see the tree. It changes. Mineral
vegetable animal. Of generations.
It exceeds me.
Come back. Come back.
Tell us of excess.
What was the sign that limited?
Do not serve the tree.
This is the sending.
This place is littered with great stones.
No more! Return to the shore
we remember. Do not go beyond our knowledge.
Bring back that black thing.
we did not have in our story.
It alone to speak, to give strangeness.
In the field of the poem the unexpected
must come.
We wait.
It does not come.
There is a disturbance in the House.
I had forgotten its orders. The plants
ask to be waterd.
If we have not set things to rights,
the indwelling
is not with us, there are no instructions.
MM
