Michael Harlow

The Explanation

—after a phrase by Chuang Tzu

Those who are mad
know something we do not

behind their eyes
bells ring dark ring light

they know the openness of a circle
the possibilities of enigma

how dancing on one foot
the other is not forgotten

as ancient as stars they
know the secret life of a dream

knowing as did another
a hundred hundred dark selves

from here that ‘never never
never is always always always’

From Today is the Piano’s Birthday   (Auckland/Oxford UP, 1981)

© Michael Harlow
 

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Last updated 20 March, 2005