94
or Sophocles) -- to feed,
to fl ower, again and again
to bear and be, in toughness
and delicacy, this strictly
conditional existence, small,
swift, incidental beauty, persisting.
x
visit
Patch of wet sand there
by the water's edge
Packed with butterfl ies
doing what -- drinking?
Till one tottered upward
to circle me, then others,
One or two at a time,
and for a moment
I had going around me
in the playful silence
A big wreath of butterfl ies,
that broke away then
And went staggering high
above the Matilija
xi
draft from the matilija
Down off the burnt-off slope
for a drink, the big snake
Stops me on my way
home at mid-day
To responsibilities (miles from here
in what is, for the U.S.,