The Kingfisher

Halycon Days
---- Big Frank Dickinson

A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds . . .

---- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Into the same river no man steps twice
When fire dies air dies
No one remains, nor is, one
Around an appearance, one common model, we grow up
many. Else how is it,
if we remain the same,
we take pleasure now
in what we did not take pleasure before? love
contrary objects? admire and/or find fault? use
other words, feel other passions, have
nor figure, appearance, disposition, tissue
the same?
To be in different states without a change
is not a possibility"
from "The Kingfishers" by Charles Olson


The kingfisher, sky diver of sharp bill and brilliant plummage
By legend gets two weeks each year
Of calm to hatch her eggs, haycon days, when
Aolus calms the seas and quiets the very sky.
Splendid days of hushed mind and even breath
That seem to settle in with a forever of ample
Blessings, of stable consistency - you think;
but your sea of tranquility has an upswell of change to
Go through; at first in peace, no wind or wave to tossle the
Rest at which you sit, yet it is a pause that poses you
To take pleasure in that which you have not,
To love what you before could not,
To find fault in that which you used to praise,
To be that which you did not used to be,
And in this way step into the rising wind
And welcome the curling wave in the familiar river
That you dive into for the very first time, again.