<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=us-ascii"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal;" class="">Still</div><p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""> </p><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">I said I will find what is lowly</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">and put the roots of my identity</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">down there:</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">each day I'll wake up</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">and find the lowly nearby,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">a handy focus and reminder,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">a ready measure of my significance,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">the voice by which I would be heard,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">the wills, the kinds of selfishness</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">I could</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">freely adopt as my own:</div><p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""> </p><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">but though I have looked everywhere,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">I can find nothing</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">to give myself to:</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">everything is</div><p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""> </p><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">magnificent with existence, is in </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">surfeit of glory:</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">nothing is diminished,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">nothing has been diminished for me:</div><p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""> </p><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">I said what is more lowly than the grass:</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">ah, underneath,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">a ground-crust of dry-burnt moss:</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">I looked at it closely</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">and said this can be my habitat: but</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">nestling in I</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">found</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">below the brown exterior</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">green mechanisms beyond the intellect</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">awaiting resurrection in rain: so I got up</div><p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""> </p><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">and ran saying there is nothing lowly in the universe:</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">I found a beggar:</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">he had stumps for legs: nobody was paying</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">him any attention: everybody went on by:</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">I nestled in and found his life:</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">there, love shook his body like a devastation:</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">I said</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">though I have looked everywhere</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">I can find nothing lowly</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">in the universe:</div><p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""> </p><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">I whirled though transfigurations up and down,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">transfigurations of size and shape and place:</div><p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""> </p><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">at one sudden point came still,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">stood in wonder:</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">moss, beggar, weed, tick, pine, self, magnificent</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">with being!</div><p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""> </p><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>- A. R. Ammons</div></body></html>