Arrangement

Philosophers cannot let the landscape alone, but tour the world trying to rearrange it in an orderly way, not realizing that the world, ironically enough, is always in the process of rearranging itself...
—Helen Vendler

The still life in our pool
(A painted underwater scene
Involving plants we drew
From rubber shades of green

And blue) finally went to seed
This spring, and sprouted shapes we
Never pictured submarine
(Monsters accidentally

Wrung from chlorine and acetate),
But at every stage
Their ripples intervene

In our cinematic age,
Making movies out of dives,
As our objects organize their lives.

Bedford
August 8th, 1986

Redone November 21st, 1986
January 4th, 1994
September 14th, 15th, and 22nd, 1995
April 17th, 1999