R. J. Sobel
The Shortcut
Carefully mussed hair, ink smear on his neck, he catches up with me after class, both of us heading to the library, and asks in a sleepy voice – as if he’s not yet gathered the energy after spring break to face the day – if there’s a shortcut to the object of Rilke’s counsel that one ought to wait to live a whole lifetime before perhaps being able to write ten good lines. I’m reminded of my elementary school teachers’ timeworn admonition that to cheat on a test is to cheat oneself – as the ink smear to my old eyes resolves into a tattoo of the kanji meaning “song.” A song of a seasoned life, I think, given those few good lines, born of the journey, may rise above all the stubborn resonance … the cries and raptures of our vernal refrains … pebbles in my shoe. But feeling a bit slack myself – having stayed up late into the night, parsing memories for the faintest scent of their sweetness – I say, “I haven’t found a better way,” as we hop the fence.
morning fog
a crow and a dragonfly
each in its own lane
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Note: Rilke reference is to a passage in the novel, Die Aufzeichnungen des Malte Laurids Brigge (Rilke, Rainer Maria, Insel-Verlag, 1910).
About the author:
R.J. Sobel was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1949. He is the author of the four volumes of poetry The Seasons Suite: Momentary Vagrant, Purview of the Sky, Leaves of Entropy, and Dreams and Other Lastings , as well as other works of drama, lyrics, poetry, and prose.
Image: I am so sad and everything is beautiful by Harriet Garfinkle. By permission.
