The Unanswering Correspondences

Kenneth Patchen

Intensification of compassion; extraordinary; incalculable;
Grandeur hurls us down -
Tears blind us -
Sparrows! lions! crags! meadows! seas!

Inexhaustible; wounding; unimaginable; illimitable;

This imperishable grandeur!
The heart breaks - tears blind us -
Immensurable; unfathomable; implacable; unsayable;
We cry our animal grief -

Compassion blinds our eyes -

Each blade
Of grass, leaf of tree,
Each
Feather floating to earth,
Is a signature of love
And sorrow.
O sparrows, lions and

Seas! tears blind us.