“What we don’t know chains us, leaves us sitting in the valley with a stupid smile. We discover our ignorance as we go. After a lifetime, if we’ve been attentive, we should fall to our knees before the vastness, the ungraspable minutiae of our world. We should suspect that it constitutes our God. And we so-called experts of this or that, could we have done more than play our one chord? Wisdom is to know, at best, that we make only a little good noise, a few small dents. It’s why the wise laugh a lot, why the laughter of metaphysicians echoes in the spaces they probe. We walk out of our houses into the enormity of our task. What kind of ant is that? Who named the phlox? Is that a path or a rut?”
~ Stephen Dunn, Ignorance – Riffs & Reciprocities
Stephen Dunn (born 1939) is an American poet. He won the Pulitzer Prize for his 2001 collection, Different Hours. He was born in Forest Hills, Queens in New York. Dunn completed his B.A. in English at Hofstra University and his M.A. in creative writing at Syracuse. He has taught at Wichita State, University of Washington, Columbia University, University of Michigan and Princeton University. Dunn lives in Ocean City New Jersey.
Sources: Quote – whiskeyriver.blogspot.com. Image: Jakupwashere
Live & Learn 
That’s great!
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Thanks Julie
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Love, love, love Stephen Dunn–he’s one of my favorite contemporary poets. Check out his collection, “New and Selected Poems, 1974-1994.”. “Some Things I Wanted to Say to You” is a personal favorite….
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(Embarrassed to say, I had never heard of him until I came across this poem.) Lori, I’m on it (getting the book). Thanks for pointing me to it. I found your favorite – thanks for sharing.
Some Things I Wanted to Say to You (By Stephen Dunn)
If the horse that you ride
is blind it’s good
that it also be slow,
and please stroke it
a hundred more times than you would
the powerful dazzling one.
To be generous is one thing,
but there’s a clerk in some of us,
quick to say yes.
Worry about the command
in the suggestion.
Worry about smiles, and those men
whose business is business.
There are joys and enigmas
of an evening alone
to appreciate.
There are always the simple events
of your life
that you might try to convert
into legend.
Did you know
a good dog in your house
can make you more thoughtful,
even more moral?
And sex without conversation,
sex that’s exotic or sleepy…
oh don’t let anybody tell you
there’s a wrong way to have it.
Tell your lovers the world
robs us is so many ways
that a caress is your way
of taking something back.
Tell the dogs and the horses
you love them more than cars.
Speak to everything
would be my advice.
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I was consumed. I will surely read more of his stuff.
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Man plans, God laughs…far better to marvel at all that is around us and be humble, than think that we alone are creating a symphony..
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Yes. Full stop.
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Is that a path or a rut? Profound question for a Friday morning and one that can be used in so many areas of life. Love it …
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Thanks Laurie.
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Deep! much too deep. I’ll contemplate over the weekend
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No kidding Michael – not sure what got into me on a Friday morning – which is using reserved for laughs and yuks to get through TGIF.
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Hummmm….very deep for the morning especially before coffee 🙂
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Yes, in retrospect, too deep (i think). 🙂
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Wonderful David… 🙂
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Thanks Carol
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do we know what chains us? I don’t think so..for it is something we don’t know..
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I’m dragging all kinds of chains…My list would be long. 🙂
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🙂
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Wow!!
BeautifuL!
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Thank you. I thought so too
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This leads me off down a lateral path to ask, why, if we’re ants in comparison to God, huge numbers of people package someone so unknowable in boxes to suit their religious preferences?
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Now that’s deep Sarah…:)
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Is it a path or rut? Or are we too self-focused to notice where we’re walking and so fall off the edge?
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Exactly.
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Very deep, and I better not answer at this time!
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Laughing. I too have no answers. Lot’s of questions.
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Wow ~ path or a rut? Great post to make us think!
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:). Yes.
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