The Secret

Poems 1960-1967 (1967)

Two girls discoverthe secret of lifein a sudden line ofpoetry.

I who don’t know thesecret wrotethe line. Theytold me

(through a third person)they had found itbut not what it wasnot even

what line it was. No doubtby now, more than a weeklater, they have forgottenthe secret,

the line, the name ofthe poem. I love themfor finding whatI can’t find,

and for loving mefor the line I wrote,and for forgetting itso that

a thousand times, till deathfinds them, they maydiscover it again, in otherlines

in otherhappenings. And forwanting to know it,for

assuming there issuch a secret, yes,for thatmost of all.