Finishing Up

I wonder if I know enough to know what it’s really like

to have been here: have I seen sights enough to give

seeing over: the clouds, I’ve waited with white

October clouds like these this afternoon often before and

taken them in, but white clouds shade other white

ones gray, had I noticed that: and though I’ve

followed the leaves of many falls, have I spent time with

the wire vines left when frost’s red dyes strip the leaves

away: is more missing than was never enough: I’m sure

many of love’s kinds absolve and heal, but were they passing

rapids or welling stirs: I suppose I haven’t done and seen

enough yet to go, and, anyway, it may be way on on the way

before one picks up the track of the sufficient, the

world-round reach, spirit deep, easing and all, not just mind

answering itself but mind and things apprehended at once

as one, all giving all way, not a scrap of question holding back.

Notes:

Published by permission of John Ammons c/o Writers’ Representatives LLC, New York, NY.

Source: Poetry (September 2017)