Readiness
Be ready every moment, but don’t make
a fetish of it. Readiness is all
about us, placed there, ready, for our sake,
to set a good example. There’s the fall
of apples, here’s the ripening of grain,
of grapes, of olives for the oil press,
the readiness of burrs, a hunter’s bane,
to cling, the instant grasp of holiness.
As readiness itself is sacred, show
some care embracing it. You may not feel
much in return. Perhaps a modest glow.
Or burn. The turning of an inner wheel.
It’s hard to say. You may feel nothing. Still,
though few face calmly their surprise, you will.
Dan Campion is the author of Calypso (1981), A Playbill for Sunset (2022), The Mirror Test (2024), Star Anchors (2026) and Peter De Vries and Surrealism (1995) and is a co-editor of Walt Whitman: The Measure of His Song (1981, 2nd ed. 1998, 3rd ed. 2019). Dan’s poetry has appeared previously in Amethyst Review and in Able Muse, Light, Poetry, Rolling Stone, THINK, and many other magazines.
