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white river poems 395
lecturer on Fourier
and economic justice,
farmer, columnist, teacher,
founder of a colony,
Utopian novelist
..."*
-- Many-souls, like Colorow.
-- I had that ready for you ...
-- Very well. And each one richer
than the force that baffl
ed it.
-- But not necessarily
richer than what lies behind
that force. -- Well, that force alone,
blank-faced, is what the soul meets.
-- The spirit, like love, is blind;
I question that the soul needs ...
-- Another matter. The world
itself is not needed. No,
the naivete you ascribe
to Piah and me goes well
with the hang of things. Desire's
the only thing worth having --
against the hard composite
of interlocking habits
the world would be without it.
Hang my picture among Jack's
and Piah's and Colorow's.
I suddenly remember
Meeker's reputation here
in Meeker, the town: for him
it's friendless territory.
*The title of Meeker's novel was The Adventures of Captain Armstrong.