afieldnotebook

Forget

Forget the suffering
You caused others.
Forget the suffering
Others caused you.
The waters run and run,
Springs sparkle and are done,
You walk the earth you are forgetting.

Sometimes you hear a distant refrain.
What does it mean, you ask, who is singing?
A childlike sun grows warm.
A grandson and a great-grandson are born.
You are led by the hand once again.

The names of the rivers remain with you.
How endless those rivers seem!
Your fields lie fallow,
The city towers are not as they were.
You stand at the threshold mute.

-Czeslaw Milosz

I forgot I was supposed to do a poem today until just now, so I googled (did you know it's Cézanne's 172nd birthday? Google did.) "forget poem" real quick and I liked this one.

Sometimes selecting a poem for Wednesday poemday is not very serious business. Which does not mean the poem itself is not serious; I'm sorry to frame it with my flippancy, but sometimes I get distracted.