I Have Words Poem by Roy William Gotaas

For that I have words
You shall not see my work:
Buried my bone in the wide flower-garden
Under the rose-petals and rotting leaves.
Words to words, must to must,
Flashes and glitter.


Worms and heart heave in the throat,
Fingers fall and die on the white sheet;
Traffic of beauty a one-way street.
Sight gives man that is born of woman
Such a long time searching:
Man that is dumb of woman
Such a long time singing
Before the ashes and the root.


Words to words, must to must,
Flashes my need in the last cadence falling.