For/From Lew

Lew Welch jut turned up one day,
live as you and me. “Damn, Lew” I said,

“you didn’t shoot yourself after all.”
“Yes I did” he said,
and even then I felt the tingling down my back.
“Yes you did, too” I said — “I can feel it now.”
“Yeah” he said,
“There’s a basic fear between your world and
mine. I don’t know why.
What I came to say was,
teach the children about the cycle.
The life cycles. All the other cycles.
That’s what it’s all about, and it’s all forgot.”

Gary Snyder Axe Handles
(San Francisco, North Point Press, 1983: p 7)