Rationality Poem by gershon hepner

Because we place a premium on our rati-
onality we do not like surprises
like the one above. A hyphen dash
may well have caused a momentary crisis
for readers who could not interpret “rati, ”
but shows just how irrationally I feel
attracted to what some consider batty,
surprises others censor as surreal.

Inspired by a poem by Kay Ryan in her poetry collection, “Flamingo Watching” Providence: Copper Beech Press,1994) .

LES NATURES PROFONDEMENT BONNES SONT TOUJOURW INDECISES

One strong squirt
of will and the world
fills with direction.
All roads go Roman.
The path not taken
is not kept open.
There is suddenly
a rational waterworks
system. Things are done
as no indecisive person
could do them. Still
there is a population
that likes mistakes and
indecision, guarding
atavisms and anatomical
sports, the hips of snakes,
the wings of the horse.
They do not argue that
this is useful. They
make no mention of the gene pool. They just
like to think about these things. They
make them comfortable.


12/9/08