white river poems 337
`I know what an argument
is worth, even a sound one.'
And after a little pause,
`It can seem a natural force,
set moving by conditions
of which it is no portion,
like the trunk of a big tree
shooting along in a fl ood.
It can lead a man to suppose
the truth will make -- break him free.
But I had a life, and death,
that left me musing upon
events much longer than words,
though I took words for my trade
and was a happy tradesman....'
I remark, `You mean events
are ultimate,' and Meeker
contemplates me with an air
of friendly speculation,
as if fi guring a risk
(of embarrassing us both?)
if he should speak out freely
what has fl amed up in his mind.
`Not even those where I am
see more of the ultimate
than that it's our source, and not
our aim; the truth's a blazing
mystery, from faith in which, men
move not toward an empyrean
but into their lives, and death.
It's not something we see, being
the radiance we see by....'
He hesitates, and then says,
`And seeing is believing ...'
and pauses again. I say,
`And all this murk?' Meeker laughs.