Carrying No Card Poem by gershon hepner

No card I catty, I’m not on a list
identifying just who I might be.
Alone I travel, and I do not exist,
according to the rosters that agree
they have no place for me. Who am I then,
if I’m a fellow traveling alone?
I’m one of those few happy, lonely men
whose only property is thoughts they own.

Inspired by a poem “To The Happy Few, ” by W. S. Merwin, in the NYR, June 12,2008:

To The Happy Few

Do you know who you are

oh you forever listed
under some other heading
when you are listed at all

you whose addresses
when you have them
are never sold except
for another reason
something else that is
supposed to identify you

who carry no card
stating that you are––
what would it say you were
to someone turning it over
looking perhaps for
a date of for
anything tol go by

you with no secret handshake
no proof of membership
no way to prove such a thing
even to yourselves

you without a word
of explanation
and only yourselves
as evidence


6/22/08