The Falling

photo by Henry & Co. on pexels

by Michael Olson

(After Theodore Roethke’s “The Waking”)

I fall to rise and take my falling fast.
I feel myself in things I hope to know.
I learn by holding those that never last.

I feel by thinking how to hold my past.
I know myself by what I need to sow.
I fall to rise and take my falling fast.

To those who know a part of me, you asked:
Where are you going? I go where I go.
I need to follow things that never last.

A tree gives up its lumber. Its fate cast.
Its roots that always bend will always grow.
It falls to rise and takes its falling fast.

A beast can know a man, its care steadfast
But hunger sharpens fangs, makes care hollow.
Finally, we learn from what never lasts.

This fear keeps me dry but my roots are vast.
What falls is always falling. I would know.
I fall to rise and take my falling fast.
I’ve learned by holding things that never last.

*This poem appears in the poet’s new book, In The Tall Grasses, Finishing Line Press, 2024

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