Passing Over Your Virtues
By Vicki Hearne
To pass over in silence
Is to acknowledge logic,
The necessity of form,
The stunning curve of language,
The curious way it seems
To turn out that “love” means “need”
Even in a lush garden.
To pass over the Red Sea
Or your bounty—so long as
True silence and not some tense
Paralysis of the false
Is achieved—then Passover
Is always a charity,
The painted fish in the blue
Water turns to their own colors.
To pass over in silence
Is to acknowledge you if
This chatter dissolve as it
Will in the marvelous sky.
Copyright Credit: Vicki Hearne, "Passing Over Your Virtues" from Tricks of the Light: New and Selected Poems. Copyright © 2007 by Vicki Hearne. Reprinted by permission of The University of Chicago Press.
Source: Tricks of the Light: New and Selected Poems (The University of Chicago Press, 2007)