personal favorites / poetry collections… Ordinary Words by Ruth Stone / poem & video

 
 
 
Ruth Stone

Ordinary Words

 
 
 
“This”

Shadow of too much knowing, days wasted in light.
Crossing some street to find diversion for a moment.
Cities scattered like a deal of cards.

On the ship hung with colored lanterns,
slipping past the island of the desperate,
we leaned looking back at what we were leaving.

It comes between the legs;
it comes out of the bag,
this sly shadow of too much knowing.

As I run on miraculous hooves
from the wooden pen. As I run
through the market street squealing.

This glaze of vision fragmented,
confetti caught in the updraft;
dark photograph of the penumbra.

~

 
 
An audio link of Stone reading “Ordinary Words”
 
 
 
~
 
Video of Stone – Vermont, 2008

~ by samofthetenthousandthings on April 30, 2012.