Photograph: Werner Schmidt

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

The Existential Rower


The Existential Rower

Oars would get him
To his destination,
Oars and his prowess,
The prowess of the athlete.
Discipline grew in him
Like a second being,
The regimen he did not fail
To follow like a religion,
The regimen that burned
His body lean,
Hard, until
His muscles and the singlet he wore
Seemed one, the suit
He wore to his office:
And his shell,
Sleek, slick in the water,
The grace of its shape
To which his body conformed,
The grace of them together on the water,
Each stroking of his oars
Another word in the prayer,
The Prayer of doing
That got him where he was going.

Philip Kuepper
(September 2011)

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