Come into animal presence - Denise Levertov

[Lawrence Robinson]

Come into animal presence
 
Come into animal presence 
No man is so guileless as 
the serpent. The lonely white 
rabbit on the roof is a star 
twitching its ears at the rain. 
The llama intricately 
folding its hind legs to be seated 
not disdains but mildly 
disregards human approval. 
What joy when the insouciant 
armadillo glances at us and doesn't 
quicken his trotting 
across the track and into the palm brush. 
What is this joy? That no animal 
falters, but knows what it must do? 
That the snake has no blemish, 
that the rabbit inspects his strange surroundings 
in white star-silence? The llama 
rests in dignity, the armadillo 
has some intention to pursue in the palm-forest. 
Those who were sacred have remained so, 
holiness does not dissolve, it is a presence 
of bronze, only the sight that saw it 
faltered and turned from it. 
An old joy returns in holy presence. 

	- Denise Levertov