Love Calls us to the Things of this World

Editor's note: this poem is not formatted correctly. i keep adding spaces to no avail -- when the blog is published, they're not there. sorry, richard wilbur! sorry poem readers!

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LOVE CALLS US TO THE THINGS OF THIS WORLD

The eyes open to a cry of pulleys,
And spirited from sleep, the astounded soul
Hangs for a moment bodiless and simple
As false dawn.
Outside the open window
The morning air is all awash with angels.

Some are in bed-sheets, some are in blouses,
Some are in smocks: but truly there they are.
Now they are rising together in calm swells
Of halcyon feeling, filling whatever they wear
With the deep joy of their impersonal breathing;

Now they are flying in place, conveying
The terrible speed of their omnipresence, moving
And staying like white water; and now of a sudden
They swoon down into so rapt a quiet
That nobody seems to be there.
The soul shrinks

From all that is about to remember,
From the punctual rape of every blessed day,
And cries,
``Oh, let there be nothing on earth but laundry,
Nothing but rosy hands in the rising steam
And clear dances done in the sight of heaven.''

Yet, as the sun acknowledges
With a warm look the world's hunks and colors,
The soul descends once more in bitter love
To accept the waking body, saying now
In a changed voice as the man yawns and rises,

``Bring them down from their ruddy gallows;
Let there be clean linen for the backs of thieves;
Let lovers go fresh and sweet to be undone,
And the heaviest nuns walk in a pure floating
Of dark habits,
keeping their difficult balance.''
--Richard Wilbur


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a perfect Monday poem. i take issue with the soul/body split, but i love how beautiful and even spiritual everyday things like laundry, steam, and rosy hands become in this poem.

a former professor told a story about changing her baby's diaper while in a faculty meeting with other prominent theologians/scholars. one remarked to her that there she was this well known theologian having this high-falutin' theological discussions with all of these academics, and moments later she was stuck doing a mundane, dirty task. she looked at him and said, "this is the most theological thing i've done all day."

o let there be nothing on earth but laundry!