OPPOSITION
IF YOU LOSE YOUR HORSE
DO NOT GO AFTER IT
GO DOWN UNDER THE BRIDGE
WHERE THE OUTLAWS
TEND THEIR FIRE
WARM YOURSELF
AND WAIT
Notes on the Writing of “Opposition”:
I wrote “opposition” one night years ago after throwing the I Ching. In fact, the first two lines of the poem, If you lose your horse do not go after it, come from the Wilhelm translation, the big, grey Princeton Bollingen hardcover that is the closest thing to a Bible I know. In my mind, this poem is a prayer, or mantra, along the lines of Bob Dylan’s “Don’t Think Twice.” (Dylan said somewhere in an interview that he used to repeat the lines to himself during the day as a reminder.) I love all the images and metaphors in the I Ching. Lines like “The wild goose gradually draws near the tree.” And: “He was a good horse, an old horse, a lean horse, a wild horse.” Love them because they are so wild, almost surreal, and, at the same time, they a seem to depict practical actions. You get wisdom but wrapped in a riddle. As soon as I encountered those lines (“If you lose your horse/do not go after it.”) I knew the rest of the poem. It flowed from my pen as if dictated to me. — Sebastian Matthews
[Bliss Archive poem]