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Article: A pace like that. (poem)
- Article from:
- The American Poetry Review
- Article date:
- September 1, 1996
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1996 World Poetry, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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I'm looking at the lemon tree I planted. A year ago. I'd need a different pace, a slower one, to observe the growth of its branches, its leaves as they open. I want a pace like that. Not like reading a newspaper but the way a child learns to read, or the way you quietly decipher the inscription on an ancient tombstone.
And what a Torah scroll takes an entire year to do as it rolls its way from Genesis to the death of Moses, I do each day in haste or in sleepless nights, rolling over from side to side.
The longer you live, the more people there are who comment on your actions. Like a worker in a manhole: at the opening above him people stand around giving free ...