[Susan McLean]

Accomplished (revised)

Succeeding as a poet means you know
you're nobody. Writing your name in water,
you dissipate, dissolving in the flow.
Succeeding as a poet means you know
you're planting rows of seedlings in the snow.
Not truth but mere oblivion is Time's daughter.
Succeeding as a poet means you know.
You're nobody, writing your name in water.


Accomplished

Succeeding as a poet means you know
you're nobody. Writing your name in water,
you broaden by dissolving in the flow.
Succeeding as a poet means you know
you're planting rows of seedlings in the snow,
yet still you plant. Oblivion is Time's daughter.
Succeeding as a poet means you know:
you're nobody, writing your name in water.