Pandora
for Rebecca
She, for she it was, said
AWAKEN,
and gold was caught in the dew of the grass,
a robed woman watered a garden,
the beauty quickened and hurt, alas
to find and lose, to seek and sustain
the speed of the growth and the growth pain.
She, for she it was, said
BEHOLD,
and beheld we were
by sunlit day through star-scattered night,
but lost,
lost we were
on a plain meeting the sky
at the fartherest light of the eye,
waters lapped on a shore,
also an open door stood,
pools dreamed deep and dreamed on savannas,
crowds shouted and shouted hosannas,
I want became I say, I have written,
checked became bounded and bitten,
together fell from apart and pieces,
sweaters were knitted to fleeces,
we fell on children, cities, and shrines,
made cookies, paintings, and rhymes.
She, for she it was, said
ALL THINGS,
and all things being said
what do we say,
danger and daughter, feed and fodder,
day and day, night and night robber,
a wave is a wave as wave to a wave,
wander and wonder, cry and rave.
She, for she it was, said
HOPE,
and we trusted to hope,
the last out the box
and given to thought and forethought,
so we spin, teach, and are taught,
swirl for the swing, grow feathers and wings,
fly on a zephyr to the height of the world,
for hope is high and hope is a girl.
McMaster University
Hamilton, Ontario
1993 November 15