August 13, 2010

In Lieu of Logos

This is a poem by Scott Cairns, found in his collection of poetry, Recovered Body, pg. 70-71 (The whole book is amazing!).  This is really a poetic rendering of Prof. Bosma's concept of "optionsville," and the reason I prefer Hebrew to Greek.

In Lieu of Logos

Let's suppose some figure more Hebraic
in its promise, more inclined to move

from one provisional encampment
to the next, then discover the effect

wandering tenders even as it draws
the weary hiker on to further

speculation, crossing what has seemed so
like barren country but whose very

barrenness proves a prod for yet another
likely story.  The old Jews liked davar,

which did something more than just point fingers
to what lies back behind one's fussy, Greek

ontology of diminishing
returns.  I have come to like it too, word

with a future as dense as its past,
a Ding Gedicht whose chubby letters each

afford a pause at which the traveler
rubs his chin and looking up entertains

a series of alternate routes, just now
staying put at the borrowed outpost,

but marveling how each turn of the head
gives way to distance, layers every term

of travel--each terminal--with reprieve,
invites indeterminate, obscure enormity

to gather at the glib horizon's edge.