• rhetoric and poetic

from James Merrill, "The Book of Ephraim"

And here was I, or what was left of me,
Feared and rejoiced in, chafed against, held cheap,
A strangeness that was us, and was not, had
All the same allowed for its description,
And so brought at least me these spells of odd,
Self-effacing balance. Better to stop
While we still can. Already I take up
Less emotional space than a snowdrop. . . .
Young chameleon, I used to
Ask how on earth one got sufficiently
Imbued with otherness. And now I see.

• Jim Aune's blog
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