Zone - A. R. Ammons

[Larry Robinson]

Zone

I spent the day 
differentiating 
and wound up 
with nothing 
whole to keep: 

tree came apart from tree, 
oak from maple, oak 
from oak, leaf from leaf, 
mesophyll cell 
from cell 
and toward dark 
I got lost between 
cytoplasm’s grains 
and vacuoles: 

the next day began 
otherwise: tree 
became plant, plant 
and animal became 
life: life & rock, 
matter: that 
took up most of 
the morning: after 
noon, matter began 
to pulse, shoot, to 
vanish in and out of 
energy and 

energy’s invisible 
swirls confused, surpassed 
me: from that edge 
I turned back, 
strict with limitation, 
to my world’s 
bitter acorns 
and sweet branch water. 

	- A. R. Ammons