Imprecision

Sojourners Magazine, Nov 2004 by Cairns, Scott

Availing space in which

we live and move and come

to glimpse the import of

our being. Opening

occasion of our brief,

expansive guess that when

we're after meaning, more

is always likelier

to please than the common

lot of less with which our

frequent expeditions

are in the main rewarded.

Such lacunae lend us

all their agency, each

and every time we deign,

to enter, willing to

attend, and leaning in

to ambiguity

unguarded, undaunted,

witness then the endless

modulations present

in each passing scene. I,

too, had chance occasion,

once, to choose between

two such modes of travel-

that of knowing, clearly,

what I meant to see and,

on the other hand, not

so sure, but eager for

the roads' divergences.

If I sigh now, it's not

so much for me as for

the prospect of a road

constructed as we go,

bearing both our burdens

and ourselves, always just

ahead, and bearing on.

Scott Cairns is professor of English at the University of Missouri. His most recent collection is Philokalia: New & Selected Poems (Zoo Press, 2002).