Halfway down the hall new and selected poems by Rachel Hadas

Author:Rachel Hadas [Hadas, Rachel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Poetry
ISBN: 9780819522511
Publisher: Wesleyan
Published: 1998-09-24T18:30:00+00:00

Page 110

PASS IT ON, I

Like a huge tree house out of mortal reach,

high platforms thickest foliage nearly hides.

Instead of speech,

hands reach across and down to help us up.

Translation: crossing over the abyss,

handing the little ones, the old ones over

to who'll receive them. Carryings

from here to the invisible and endless.

Tradition: handing on and handing down

and handing up, a laying on of hands.

Hand over hand pass on, press in

the secret of ascent:

gravity's up. The jungle is too lush

to walk in, so we all find other ways

of navigating: flail, wade, bracchiate,

hooting like happy apes,

or silently, staggeringly, smoothly

swim, angels, fishes, forward through the green

gloom towards a height, a waterfall

or treefall one can climb? A gap; a dome;

more reaching hands; and a pervasive light.

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