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1---
2title: Litany for a plant
3id: plant
4genre: verse
5
6project:
7 title: Autocento of the breakfast table
8 class: autocento
9...
10
11I need a plant. I need a thing \
12to take care of. I need \
13a little green brownspotted \
14[blackdirt][] growing \
15quietness. I need a sunlit \
16dawn knowing my name filtered \
17through a [thin green window][]. \
18I need chlorophyll \
19working its [magic][] on beams of \
20grassmade early morning dewdrop \
21sweetmaking green. I need \
22the dark earth sucking water \
23from a black crevice \
24its black magic churning \
25wormilled rockturned starblind \
26darkness and cold into \
27[the opposite of dust][]. I need the heat \
28to blind me. I need the dumb making \
29to charge my coldened blood. I need \
30the dropturned leaves to turn again \
31their [faces to the windblown sun][]. \
32I need millions of tiny years \
33summed up and burning out some unknown \
34new growth into the air. I need four \
35hundred feet of dark red gnarled wood \
36and needles glistening wetly on goldheaded \
37branches hoisting themselves \
38to the sky. I need ten strong men \
39to fail to bring you down. Old one \
40I need the peace that comes with knowing \
41something sacred holds still \
42in the world. I need your green tongues \
43[of flame to lick at old wounds][] \
44stitching us together away from ourselves. \
45I need your brownbranching grasp \
46to keep me from drifting off \
47into [unknowing terrible sleep][]. I need \
48[to know the snake][] hanging \
49from your branches. I need to watch \
50the dropping of flesh massful \
51onto the ground from a height. I need \
52the gnawer at your root to strike \
53a vein to quicken old brown stone \
54to movement. I need jeweleyed venom \
55barking new greennesses into the bark. \
56I need a knocker of dark secrets hidden \
57in the dark bark hiding a smallstone \
58smoldering pearl in the knot. I need \
59that [pearl held out in a hand][] like an offering. \
60I need the hand to be a plant's hand.
61
62I need a plant. I need a growing \
63growler [groaning][] toward heat and air. \
64I need a green thin stem surprisingly strong \
65holding up the weight of a plain \
66of fallow [greennesses of creases and caresses][] \
67of tiny worldmaking hardworking grandeur. \
68I need a singer of life crying \
69forward into old roads covered over \
70by dead trees. I need the rasping of root \
71in dirt. I need the unfurling of fiddleheads \
72to sing forth a new symphony. I need \
73fruits swelling large for the harvest. \
74I need yellow light shining through white bark. \
75I need juicecrush flowing waterlike \
76through valleys percolating up \
77through the ground. I need springs bubbling sap \
78into cabins of wood fought for by labor. \
79I need snow on the ground with shoots \
80dotting the melting patches. I need two \
81leaves on a thin stalk shivering \
82in [moonlight][]. I need robinsong warbling \
83over the heads of small seeds sprouting \
84to enliven their growth. I need rings \
85of woody material widening to push \
86the ground out of their way. I need \
87new greennesses pushing out from \
88the brown dark bark gnarled. I \
89need the robin to build its songfilled \
90nest in a [branchcrotch][]. I need \
91the fecundity of fungi on the branches. \
92I need quiet of the sunlight shooting \
93through thousands of branched leaves \
94quivering. [I need whisper at dawn.][] \
95I need burrows underground foxholes. \
96I need duff layers eaten through \
97by worms. I need brooks murmuring \
98through crooks of roots. I need small \
99[fish swimming][] in their schools at \
100midnight. I need oldnesses giving way \
101[to youngnesses giving way to oldnesses][]. \
102I need dapplegray yellowshot ashbark. \
103I need the crunch of dead leaves underfoot. \
104I need [snowquiet deadbranch][] mourning. \
105I need those [purple mountains majesty][]. \
106I need a walk between trees in the dark. \
107I need that moment when stopping to rest \
108it suddenly seems that all the weary \
109[forestroads][] in all their meandering come \
110[to rest their heads][] at my astonished \
111feet, none of them needing more than me.
112
113[blackdirt]: building.html
114[thin green window]: window.html
115[magic]: cereal.html
116[to rest their heads]: riptide_memory.html
117[forestroads]: http://www.bartleby.com/119/1.html
118[purple mountains majesty]: http://www.wrensworld.com/purpmount.htm
119[snowquiet deadbranch]: 100-lines.html
120[to youngnesses giving way to oldnesses]: about-the-author.html
121[fish swimming]: proverbs.html
122[I need whisper at dawn.]: apollo11.html
123[branchcrotch]: epigraph.html
124[moonlight]: finding-the-lion.html
125[greennesses of creases and caresses]: the-sea_the-beach.html
126[groaning]: feedingtheraven.html
127[pearl held out in a hand]: roughgloves.html
128[to know the snake]: ouroboros_memory.html
129[unknowing terrible sleep]: in-bed.html
130[of flame to lick at old wounds]: fire.html
131[faces to the windblown sun]: no-nothing.html
132[the opposite of dust]: https://samofthetenthousandthings.wordpress.com/2012/09/08/charles-wright-reads-james-wright-the-journey-audio-poem/