Norman Finkelstein
Son of the Rock
for Z.
Isn’t it always thus?
I was going to write
about the disconnectedness
of everything
The cause of our disenchantment
In the perpetually
Enchanted world
Stupefied as with strong drink
Drugged but not with
Strong rhythms
When you appeared
Bearing something green
New for all its
Vast antiquity
The light playing over
Your head over
The book
Which in its proposals
Seems among other things
To say how all
May hold together
Blessèd
Son of the rock!
False etymologies
Prove true
In their way—
A way not
Of words but
Of flesh imbued
As you venture
With
“The sense of that force
Which we inherently possess
(Or which inherently
Possesses us?) over which
We each have expressive
& little other
Control”
—So that we contend
On that
“Mutual ground”
Selah
Zack—let us close
What can never really
Be closed
Risking all for the sake
Of the rhythm
Passing through
And beyond
The verse
Norman Finkelstein is the author of four books of poetry, including the three-volume serial poem Track, and four books of literary criticism. Next fall, Marsh Hawk Press will publish Passing Over, a collection of poems from the late eighties and early nineties. Recent work appears in Talisman, Cincinnati Review, Colorado Review and the Cultural Society website (www.culturalsociety.org). Finkelstein is a Professor in the English Department of Xavier University in Cincinnati.