Proem - Martin Carter

Not, in the saying of you, are you
said. Baffled and like a root
stopped by a stone you turn back questioning
the tree you feed. But what the leaves hear
is not what the roots ask. Inexhaustibly,
being at one time what was to be said
and at another time what has been said
the saying of you remains the living of you
never to be said. But, enduring,
you change with the change that changes
and yet are not of the changing of any of you.
Ever yourself, you are always about
to be yourself in something else ever with me.

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Martin Carter (1927 - 1997) Guyana
Martin Carter, "Proem" from University of Hunger. Copyright © 2006 by Martin Carter.
Reprinted by permission:
Martin Carter, University of Hunger: Collected Poems & Selected Prose,  ed. Gemma Robinson (Bloodaxe Books, 2006) www.bloodaxebooks.com