The past is not dependent upon us for existence, but exists in its own right.
— Henry Steel Commager
The Past
All along certainly it’s been there, waiting for us, waiting to receive
……….. us, not to waver,
flickering shakily across the mind-screen, always in another shadow,
……….. always potentially illusion,
but out ahead, where it should be, redeemable, retrievable, accessible
……….. not by imagination’s nets
but by the virtue of its being, simply being, waiting patiently for us like
……….. any other unattended,
and other anticipated or not even anticipated—as much as any
……….. other fact rolling in . . .
All the project needs is patience, cunning, similar to that with which we
……….. outwit trembling death . . .
Not “history” but scent, sound, sight, the sensual fact, the beings and
……….. the doings, the heroes,
unmediated now, the holy and the horrid, to be worked across not like
………..a wistful map, but land.
by C.K. Williams
from C.K. Williams Selected Poems
Harper-Collins, 1994