RIPRAP



Lay down these words

Before your mind like rocks.

          placed solid, by hands

In choice of place, set

Before the body of the mind

           in space and time:

Solidity of bark, leaf, or wall

           riprap of things:

Cobble of milky way,

           straying planets,

These poems, people,

           lost ponies with

Dragging saddles

            and rocky sure-foot trails.

The words like an endless

           four- dimensional

Game of Go.

           ants and pebbles

In the thin loam,each rock a word 

           a creek-washed stone

Granite: ingrained

           with torment of fire and weight

Crystal and sediment linked hot

           all change, in thoughts,

As well as things.



      Gary Snyder