(Ed note: Over the last couple of days I've spoken to or corresponded with a number of friends and acquaintances who are moving. We're moving too and we're at that point in packing where it seems that our possessions procreate while we're asleep. When will it end? Packing and moving always brings this poem to mind. -- sdh)
That Will to Divest
Action creates
a taste
for itself.
Meaning: once
you've swept
the shelves
of spoons
and plates
you kept
for guests,
it gets harder
not to also
simplify the larder,
not to dismiss
rooms, not to
divest yourself
of all the chairs
but one, not
to test what
singleness can bear,
once you've begun.
- Kay Ryan
Robert Bly chose this poem for The Best American Poetry 1999. That Will to Divest first appeared in The Yale Review. Find Kay Ryan's books here.
-- sdh
