"Windrawer" by Alessio Zanelli

Windrawer

Alessio Zanelli

You can never invite the wind,
but you must leave the window open.
                              —Bruce Lee

It will blow only when it has to.
        You can yet make a difference though.
                Whether you stop or you go on
                        fantasizing about the whys and hows.

                                There is no way to master space,
                                        let alone to command time,
                                                even less to influence their flirts.
                                                        And what you pine for is an outcome.

                                                        But you can be aware of that,
                                                as you can be aware of more.
                                        Of the music still audible
                                 once the players are gone,
                         of all the wheres and whens
                you have inadvertently missed.
        Acceptance will definitely make a big difference.
Be it to blow soon or never again.

Poet’s Notes:  This one is about the human illusion of being allowed (if so wanting...) to determine one's own life completely. We can certainly succeed in sketching the big picture, in leaving the least possible to chance and luck, in managing the flowing of things on a large scale and to some extent. But on certain aspects and single events, at times even really momentous and long expected ones, we have little control, if any at all. Hence the big picture will come out the better the sooner we recognize and come to terms with our limitations.

Editor’s Note:  The concrete aspect of this poem has the effect of making the words seem to blow in the wind.  The epigraph works well to set the mood.  There is a certain thoughtful philosophy expressed, too.

Art Editor’s Note:  As with most concrete poems published in Songs of Eretz, I thought it best to allow the poem to act as its own illustration.