Lament for Makers
Not bird not badger not beaver not bee
Many creatures must
make, but only one must seek
within itself what to make
My father’s ring was a B with a dart
through it, in diamonds against polished black stone.
I have it. What parents leave you
is their lives.
Until my mother died she struggled to make
a house that she did not loathe; paintings; poems; me.
Many creatures must
make, but only one must seek
within itself what to make
Not bird not badger not beaver not bee
•
Teach me, masters who by making were
remade, your art.
.
by Charles Bidart
from Star Dust
publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005