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Pattiann Rogers
A Philosopher of Verbs and Their Godliness Contemplates
First Causes
Be is immortal, having given rise
from its immortal state to granite
and mayfly, to cod and burr, skink
and bear; just as stalk is the enduring
reality, leopard being merely its passing
result, coyote its temporal manifstation.
Grip and swing existed at the beginning,
necessitating woolly monkey and vehicle,
opossum as example, designing
the trapeze artist and her soul.
I contend that neither hawk,
turkey vulture, nor barn swallow, neither
porpoise, flying squirrel, rattling tissue-
paper kite, not seed filament or star thistle
could have ever existed without soar
and sail. Coil, as well, gave birth to pea vine
and snake, scavenge to hyena jaw, jackal
scent, mayhem of gull, ubiquitous rat.
What else but roll is the deafening
form in a midnight thunderhead?
What else but roll alone engendered
the vision of the surf, was first
in the hub of the first wheel,
predetermined the shape in the sound
of its own English name?
Stars come and go but adhere
and awake remain forever.
Imagine how springbok and pronghorn,
with their lithe hooves, their grace
and spine, were fundamentally formed
around the eternal suggestion of leap.
Shouldn’t we say that in no way
could salmon have been salmon
before leap? Yet leap without these
and without bullfrog, airborne from reeds
to mid-pond, without the riot of late August
grasshoppers, the nuance of a grand jeté,
remains without science or art. I wonder
how long cavort was present, yet void,
before otter gave to it reason and place.
It must have taken eons for laugh and cajole
to come from eternity into life.
Yet, in the end who can doubt? Praise
is the underlying precondition compelling
the fact of two hands raised, open, palms up.
I, as philosopher, now know and do declare:
my creator is seek, my wisdom is love.
PATTIANN ROGERS is the author of eleven books. Her most recent book
of poems is Generations (Penguin, 2004). She is the mother of
two sons and has two grandsons. She lives with her husband, a retired
geophysicist, in Colorado.
“A Philosopher of Verbs and Their Godliness Contemplates First
Causes” appears in our Spring
2005 issue.
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