morning mist

Foggy morning on John Lake, BWCAW, 2007, photo by B. A. Gaede


A Few Moments
by Tomas Tranströmer
Translated by Robert Bly


The dwarf pine on marsh grounds holds its head up: a dark rag.
But what you see is nothing compared to the roots,
the widening, secretly groping, deathless or half-
deathless root system.

I you she he also put roots out.
Outside our common will.
Outside the City.

Rain drifts from the summer sky that's pale as milk.
It is as if my five senses were hooked up to some other creature
that moves with the same stubborn flow
as the runners in white circling the track as the night comes misting in.




From The Half-Finished Heaven, published by Graywolf Press. by Tomas Transtromer. English language copyright © 2001 by Robert Bly.