Han Shan says his mind
is like a cloud that leans on
nothing. I know the
feeling. I watch swans
preen for two hours a day on
sandy outcrops. Grass
holds the spot intact
in the deeps. The swans’ white forms
change shape constantly.
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Author: Tom D'Evelyn
Tom D'Evelyn is a private editor and writing tutor in Cranston RI and, thanks to the web, across the US and in the UK. He can be reached at tom.develyn@comcast.net. D'Evelyn has a PhD in Comparative Literature from UC Berkeley. Before retiring he held positions at The Christian Science Monitor, Harvard University Press, Boston University and Brown University. He ran a literary agency for ten years, publishing books by Leonard Nathan and Arthur Quinn, among others. Before moving to Portland OR he was managing editor at Single Island Press, Portsmouth NH. He blogs at http://tdevelyn.com and other sites.
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Dwelling on and dwelling in constant change,. the reader finds through the poem, is an exercise of being constant and being content with her no-thing-ness. we are not by doing but by staying and relating. From the image of the cloud the reader moves to the image of the preening swan–itself looking like an animated cloud. ther reader may then re-see herself as weighless and free and yet grounded and connected.
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