In Response, Les Paroles: The Lyric Valuables … Poem by Dennis Ryan

Monday morning, September 30, 2024 at 6: 24 a.m. and 6: 52 a.m.

'Ultimately the air
Is bare sunlight where must be found
The lyric valuable … '
—from The Materials, George Oppen, American poet,1908-1984

I read a fine poem this morning
that moved me: the lyric valuables
spoken—les paroles—from her heart
spoke to my heart, one word following
the next in sequence. To write one correct
sentence is to begin to understand a way of life,
a culture not one's own, perhaps in a language not
one's own, but well-earned to the point of ownership:
en le poeme les paroles en meme temps que les sentiments …
I wonder if there's time to reconcile, to start over; it's up to her.