Experiment in Divination: Voice and Character
There is a curiosity that knows
I know
deathless ceiling of unknowing
I know
Querent,
Who I ask
is changing
all the time
changing
now changed.
How else is one to know
How is one to know how to proceed
the course of action
a non-reflective surface
a playing card on a wooden picnic table
a knot of knowing on a node of playing
How is one to know
How else is one to know how to proceed
How is one to make the motion against
And there’s forever
and that’s a mighty long time.
Copyright © 2013 by Rebecca Wolff. Used with permission of the author. This poem appeared in Poem-A-Day on August 7, 2013. Browse the Poem-A-Day archive.
"This is one of a group or series of 'Experiments in Voice and Character'; it is either the first or the last, I haven't decided, but so far it is the only one that announces its thematic material in its title. The divinatory practice it concerns itself with is the reading of cards; it concerns itself with longing for an answer when we cannot have an answer, the intense longing that provokes a certainty that there is a way of knowing if only we had it. And then we do."
—Rebecca Wolff
Rebecca Wolff
The founder of the literary journal Fence, Rebecca Wolff's collection Manderley was selected for the 2000 National Poetry Series.