For I Am Earth

FOR I AM EARTH


I am earth, and I run.
I lust, and savor life,
For I am earth, and I run

I sweat sea- and  sunborn salt,
Surging with a tide as red
As roses in July, for I
Am earth, and I sweat salt.

I know the languor
Of the cat; the hawk's icicled
Eye.  Splendor is the fox-
Glove and the tigered lily;
Dignity the great and silvered
Ape.  I green with the grass,
And hunch autumn- and oak-
Tight against myself, for I
Am earth, and I run.

I baffle at spirit split
From soil and muscled sweat, at hollow
Silken selves--diaphanous desire
For uncontaminated life.
My bone-boxed mind will not contain
Denial of itself, for I am earth.

The sea shall take me,
And the rocks hold me;
Satisfied and still.  Children
Shall carry my stainstoned
Track to school and say
He sweat salt, and ran.

Conrad Røyksund
July 1980