The reason to be autonomous is to stand there,
a cleared instrument, ready to act, to search

the moral realm and actual conditions for what
needs to be done and to do it: fine, the

best, if it works out, but if, like a gun, it
comes in handy to the wrong choice, why then

you see the danger in the effective: better
then an autonomy that stands and looks about,

negotiating nothing, the supreme indifferences:
is anything to be gained where as much is lost:

and if for every action there is an equal and
opposite reaction has the loss been researched

equally with the gain: you can see how the
milling actions of millions could come to a

buzzard-like glide as from a coincidental,
warm bottom of water stuck between chilled

peaks: it is not so easy to say, OK, go on
out and act: who, doing what, to what or

whom: just a minute: should the bunker be
bombed (if it stores gas): should all the

rattlers die just because they rattle: if I
hear the young gentleman vomiter roaring down

the hall in the men's room, should I go and
inquire of him, reducing him to my care: no

wonder the great sayers (who say nothing) sit
about in inaccessible states of mind: no

wonder still wisdom and catatonia appear to
exchange places occasionally: but if anything

were easy, our easy choices soon would carry
away our ignorance with the world-better

let the mixed-up mix and let the surface shine
with all the possibilities, each in itself.

Added: on April 28th, 2005 at 12:45 PM | Viewed: 1951 times | Comments (1)

Poet: A.R. Ammons
Poem: Rogue Elephant
Volume: Kenyon Review, Winter98, Vol. 20 Issue 1
Year: Published/Written in 1998
Poem of the Day on:
Oct 16 2004

Are you looking for more information on this poem? Perhaps you are trying to analyze it? The poem, Rogue Elephant, has received one comment so far. Click here to read it, and perhaps post a comment of your own. Of course you can also always discuss poems by A.R. Ammons with others on the Poetry Connection poetry forum!