What mystery pervades a well!

–– Emily’s supposition.

And I, like the others,

Could only but raptly listen.

 

Walt told me I would die,

Said others would say what they please.

But I knew he was right,

And his words put me at ease.

 

Mary touted the common,

As something greater than its parts.

And I was of that family of things,

The stars and me­––of one heart.

 

Their words and their stories,

Sum greater than their singular sounds.

They provide me meaning,

To ineffability I’ve found.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[1] Emily Dickinson and Thomas Herbert Johnson, The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson  (1960).

[2] Walt Whitman, Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass : The First (1855) Edition  (New York: Penguin Books, 2005).

[3] Mary Oliver, Wild Geese  (Tarset [England]: Bloodaxe, 2004).