by Mark Doty
They lie in parallel rows,
on ice, head to tail,
each a foot of luminosity
barred with black bands,
which divide the scales’
radiant sections
like seams of lead
in a Tiffany window.
Iridescent, watery
prismatics: think abalone,
the wildly rainbowed
mirror of a soapbubble sphere,
think sun on gasoline.
Splendor, and splendor,
and not a one in any way
distinguished from the other
—nothing about them
of individuality. Instead
they’re all exact expressions
of the one soul,
each a perfect fulfilment
of heaven’s template,
mackerel essence. As if,
after a lifetime arriving
at this enameling, the jeweler’s
made uncountable examples,
each as intricate
in its oily fabulation
as the one before
Suppose we could iridesce,
like these, and lose ourselves
entirely in the universe
of shimmer—would you want
to be yourself only,
unduplicatable, doomed
to be lost? They’d prefer,
plainly, to be flashing participants,
multitudinous. Even now
they seem to be bolting
forward, heedless of stasis.
They don’t care they’re dead
and nearly frozen,
just as, presumably,
they didn’t care that they were living:
all, all for all,
the rainbowed school
and its acres of brilliant classrooms,
in which no verb is singular,
or every one is. How happy they seem,
even on ice, to be together, selfless,
which is the price of gleaming.
Our minister recently read this poem at UU church to talk about seeing the sacred in every day things. The imagery in this poem is really phenomenal. My favorite line being the heart of the matter: Suppose we could iridesce,/like these, and lose ourselves/entirely in the universe/of shimmer—would you want/to be yourself only,/unduplicatable, doomed/
ReplyDeleteto be lost?
A great question, no? The idea of a "self" is so crucial in our culture that the idea of melding in or blending is almost abhorrent. And yet, these mackerel--slightly brainless and automated--are beautiful in their sameness and uniformity. Their collective "shimmer" outshines any one fish's uniqueness. It's something hard for us to emulate. Although, public performance pieces like the Black Eyed Peas performance on Oprah (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcU-vAYxLYw)try to capture that lost in the oneness-of-being concept. I'd like to be a mackerel every once in a while!