Merrill Leffler

This is a paean to relief and ecstasy. A man's poem of course—the electric ah! in the long stream arcing a rainbow under the spotlight moon, a covenant between mv body and the earth's. I think of Li Po smiling silently on Green Mountain and can hear Rumi drunk on rapture—drink my brother he calls to me, think of the elephant loosening a great ebullient stream that floats a river past your house and drop turds so immense you could build a hut from them along the shore to shelter your children. What release! Think of your child pedaling under your hand and of a sudden—it just happens—you let go and he's off on his own, free for that first time— the achieve of, the mastery of the child. See the stalwart trees in their silence the stones resting in the driveway, the cat curled asleep on the front porch, the smear of blood on the lion's mouth sitting over his fresh gazelle the morning paper and its stories shouting for attention. The plenitude of it all. And perhaps somewhere a friend is dreaming of me, or someone a stranger is peeing ecstatic under the same moon. A covenant then between us. True or not. It is no matter.

Be willing to dismantle for the purposeof rebuilding on more solid structure.—Horoscope First you must lift the idea (be careful it may be heavy) and haul it out to the dumpster. Next locate the meaning—it may not come easily, though if you have the right tools and they are good tools you should have no difficulty. Now it is the sentences' turn: take each one strip it of grammar (you may need abrasives here) and hang them all on a line. When thoroughly dried, lay each one down on the grass or if you live in the city, the sidewalk will do. The point is, make sure you put them in harm's way, wherever you are. Don't try to protect them. It may be they will go to war, or wander the desert or haunt the streets like beggars or run from the police or suffer loneliness and despair. Remember: they must make their own way. The best you can do is to stay out of theirs and take them back in if they return.