Out of the many phrases
a few have staying power
the rest like tinted snow and pillared dark
get lost inside memory’s rusty bank
as do nifty rhymes like ax and tracks
It’s remarkable in a posthumous edition
how they come bit by bit as if each stage
has pinnacles worth remembering
the rest at best adequacy labored over
practicing scales
making possible the few that leap beyond us
riveting us
to what we are not masters of