Nearest Nameless
So damn familiar
Most of the time,
I don’t even know you are here.
My life,
My portion of eternity,
A little shiver,
As if the chill of the grave
Is already catching up with me—
No matter.
Descartes smelled
Witches burning
While he sat thinking
Of a truth so obvious
We keep failing to see it.
I never knew it either
Till today.
When I heard a bird shriek:
The cat is coming,
And I felt myself tremble.
–Charles Simic (from The Voice at 3:00 A.M.)
[…] “Nearest Nameless” by Charles […]
Not sure what this means, Greg (I’m not real smart when it comes to poetry). Can you explain it in elementary terms? 🙂
Well, I’m not super confident that I know what it *means* either. I more or less identify with the poem because of its seeming allusion to God’s immanence–God being present in all things (the “little shiver”). And also with the startlement at the end.
Gregory C. Jeffers
Anglican Christian | Husband | Father | Teacher | Scholar | Poet
G. C. Jeffers 
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