A Sabbath Poem (Tagliabue)

MODERATION IS NOT A NEGATION OF
INTENSITY, BUT HELPS AVOID MONOTONY
~by John Tagliabue

Will you stop for a while, stop trying to pull yourself
    together
for some clear "meaning"--some momentary summary?
    no one
can have poetry or dances, prayers or climaxes all day;
    the ordinary
blankness of little dramatic consciousness is good for the
    health sometimes,
only Dostoevsky can be Dostoevskian at such long
    long tumultuous stretches;
look what that intensity did to poor great Van Gogh;
    linger, lounge,
scrounge and be stupid, that doesn't take much centering
    of one's forces;
as wise Whitman said "lounge and invite the soul." Get
    enough sleep;
and not only because (as Cocteau said) "poetry is the
    literature of sleep";
be a dumb bell for few minutes at least; we don't want
    Sunday church bells
    ringing constantly.

(Good Poems, selected and introduced by Garrison Keillor, Penguin Books, 2003)