Lecture Notes

For a moment I was inside the world—

a spring wind passed carrying 

the scent of earth and damp earth—

your “earth” and my “earth” are poles apart 

but stream parallel across the same plane,

keen, edge-like, isolated—the still water of the lake 

reflected the world around it, the sharper 

unknown pains of inhuman life— 

I carved in the water a diagram 

illustrating the body's upper limits,

which was soon erased—a single oar 

struck the water, its singular sound 

broke the silence around it—

the impenetrable, arbitrary water—

then a pair of oars 

breaking the silent water in concert—