Go panther-pawed where all the mined truths sleep To detonate the hidden seeds with stealth So in your wake a weltering of wealth Springs up unseen, ignored, and left behind As you sneak on, pretending to be blind. On your return along the jungle path you've made Find all the littered stuffs where you have strayed; The small truths and the large have surfaced there Where you stealth-blundered wildly unaware Or seeming so. And so these mines were mined In easy game of pace and pounce and find; But mostly fluid pace, not too much pounce. Attention must be paid, but by the ounce. Mock caring, seem aloof, ignore each mile And metaphors like cats behind your smile Each one wound up to purr, each one a pride, Each one a fine gold beast you've hid inside, Now summoned forth in harvests from the brake Turned anteloping elephants that shake And drum and crack the mind to awe, To behold beauty yet perceive its flaw. Then, flaw discovered, like fair beauty's mole, Haste back to reckon all entire, the Whole. This done, pretend these wits you do not keep, Go panther-pawed where all the mined truths sleep. WHAT I DO IS ME – FOR THAT I CAME for Gerard Manley Hopkins
What I do is me – for that I came. What I do is me! For that I came into the world! So said Gerard; So said that gentle Manley Hopkins.
