Poem: ‘In Gratuitous Witness’
Laura (Riding) Jackson, 7 September 1995
After I had long nursed a faithIn the promise on which poetry has thrived –The recalled promise of languageAt its careful rising in mindsTo teach all, little by little,Until life and speech are one,Union of being with itself,Of knowledge with the known,Instantaneity consumingThe separating silence heard as ‘time’,The beat, beat, of not-yet, not-yet –Suddenly I saw,...