Earth Tremors Felt in Missouri
The quake last night was nothing personal, you told me this morning. I think one always wonders, unless, of course, something is visible: tremors that take us, private and willy-nilly, are usual. But the earth said last night that what I feel, you feel; what secretly moves you, moves me. One small, sensuous catastrophe makes inklings letters, spelled in a worldly tremble. The earth, with others on it, turns in its course as we turn toward each other, less than ourselves, gross, mindless, more than we were. Pebbles, we swell to planets, nearing the universal roll, in our conceit even comprehending the sun, whose bright ordeal leaves cool men woebegone.
Excerpted from Selected Poems by Mona Van Duyn. Copyright © 2002 by Mona Van Duyn. Excerpted by permission of Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.