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The Wisdom in a Rondo
In a rondo the same tune
sings again, again, again,
with something else between.
Why shouldn’t your music
resemble your life? The same tune
come back in the same key?
You keep falling in love with the same
woman by different names, you take
the same job you never liked in the first place.
You buy the same house over and over,
on different streets, in different states.
The same toast, the same coffee.
Lead with the same foot in the same
dance, scratch the same itch with
the same finger. All in E major
or whatever key you start
until the last page when the double bar
signals you won’t be hearing
that tune anymore. Unless
by chance the universe
loves repetition even more
than you and keeps the rondo circling,
searching for a new place to sing.
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Editor's Note:
Last year, while the tragic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico’s deep waters was still spewing, I heard Garrison Keillor on National Public Radio read “New Religion” by poet Bill Holm, and it spoke to me about our soul connection to our oceans. I fell in love with Holm’s poems.
These four poems are excerpts from The Chain Letter of the Soul by Bill Holm, published in 2009 by Milkweed Editions, www.milkweed.org, (800) 520 -6455. This work is protected by copyright and all rights are reserved. Milkweed Editions has given us permission to reprint these poems.
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Bill Holm, who died in 2009, was born in southwestern Minnesota and spent his childhood there, growing up on the prairie. When he was ten years old (in 1953) he began gathering his poems. In his adult life, he lived in various places as you will learn when you read his works. These places included Minnesota; Seattle, Washington; and Iceland, the home of some of his ancestors. He was the author of more than a dozen books of poetry and prose which include Boxelder Bug Variations, Playing the Black Piano, Coming Home Crazy, The Heart Can Be Filled Anywhere on Earth, and The Windows of Brimnes: An American in Iceland. The Chain Letter of the Soul provides a good sample of his poems. He won many awards, including the 2008 McKnight Foundation’s Distinguished Artist Award.
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