Via Negativa
At the sight of long-stemmed lily buds
opened overnight in tongues of white fire
you prickle with the sense of a script
being played out : but you can’t tell
who is writing or how to translate it.
In your mind’s eye an image of blazing
letters blackens the page, a conceit
no sooner slammed down on paper
than deleted.
………………..No matter : failure
upon approximation is all there is,
step after step on the negative path
to not quite naming what steers worlds
and stars in cosmic circles, guides sperm
to egg time after time, holds sky
from earth and turns the seas
between – the not god that flows
and glows in everything.
.