Every month SuperForester Jordan “rediscovers” a literary gem from the vast treasure trove of an art form that, in our technological age, has become largely under-appreciated and “lost”.
Valentine’s Day blooms on the other side of this coming weekend, and if there’s one day a year most aligned with this series of post, it’s this one. I think it could be argued that most poets took up the craft out of romantic sentiment, and if not, all of the greats have written on the subject of love. Today I give you a less famous poet but one of my favorite poems:
ORDEAL
I promise to make you more alive than you’ve ever been.
For the first time you’ll see your pores opening
like the gills of a fish and you’ll hear
the noise of blood in galleries
and feel light gliding on your corneas
like the dragging of a dress across the floor.
For the first time, you’ll note gravity’s prick
like a thorn in your heal,
and your shoulder blades will hurt from the imperative of wings.
I promise to make you so alive that
the fall of dust on furniture will deafen you,
and you’ll feel your eyebrows like two wounds forming
and your memories will seem to begin
with the creation of the world.
–by Nina Cassian
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