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Wonder – is not precisely Knowing

And not precisely Knowing not –

A beautiful but bleak condition

He has not lived who has not felt –

 

Suspense – is his mature Sister –

Whether Adult Delight is Pain

Or of itself a new misgiving –

This is the Gnat that mangles men –

The last two incredible sentences of this poem come to me often while teaching.

http://www.newsfromnowhere.com/stafford/wspoem09.html

The only response
to a child’s grave is
to lie down before it and play dead

 

http://billknott.typepad.com/billknott/2007/05/06/index.html

I included the poem instead of just the link because the link takes you to the whole book, and I wanted to save you confusion.  It’s a good book.  He’s a really undersung writer.  ["Undersung and overhung," he wrote in a note to me.]