I´ve tried to write a poem
before
I´ve tried to work on a poem
like it was a quest
of finding the right word
to express the inexpressible

and it was helpless
as for summer rain
to cool a Maui noon
or quench the Earth
in San Martín

I have worshipped the
lines
Of man´s first disobedience and the fruit
My mistress eyes are nothing like the sun
the tales of Endimyon,
Yet I could not
follow the footsteps
of so great a man
as Keats
or Shakespeare
or Vincent Millay

I am the lesser being;
all that I ever said
is simply what I saw

as plain as ever
it stood before my eyes

The cruelty of men
the blooming of Hawaii
the sharp teeth of Alaska
a Montevidean eve
The love of all my friends
the joy within
the pain of butterflies
a-burning in the sun

May I now fall over the boards
to my sea-grave
if ever I did count
a syllable

or knew how many
a b rhymes are in
a quatrain

I tried to write a sonnet once
So beautiful they seemed
those sonnets
with their music
and so proud

But I could never be
the thing I´m not
or call myself a poet

I am a radar
out of order
making planes crash
in some outlanded airport
far away
just every now and then

I am a radar
bestowed with hypersense
and mathematics
poetic to the bone
who doesn´t know
how to write a poem,
who couldn´t write a poem
to save the human race

but I will never stop
until I die