Monday, July 24, 2023

Telephone Ringing


Telephone Ringing in the Labyrinth
 Adrienne Rich (1929-2012)


 It is you it is you it can only
 be you calling and I cannot answer
 in time whatever time is with no answer
 though I can hear your voice without its words
 your own voice yours alone speaking to me
 through the dark echoless ageless corridors
 of six decades out of reach and beyond
 answering if I knew what to answer
 then we laughed as we talked about likeness
 and difference and the echoes of change
 about recognition and its one sound
while we changed without knowing we were
 answering but the question was still there 
we never answered it I remember now
 as I do not answer while it keeps ringing
 while it rings on and I do not answer
 and still do not know what the question is

--W.S. Merwin

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