When first I learned that I might soon
join the ranks of the departed,
I was surprised by the odd thought
that if this departure were yet
to happen, it would prove to be
my migration from a puzzled
minority view to that more
expansive apprehension held
by our disabused majority
dwelling well outside the meager
glitch of time and its narrowing
perspective, long fraught with error.
As a boy, I once trekked a trail
behind my father, who promised
an alpine meadow where we would
make camp, warm our stew, and witness
that night the heavens opening.
They opened, opened in a way
that I had not previously
witnessed, which is to say my dad
made good on his promise, and I
learned then to trust even his most
extravagant assurances.
I now suppose that my odd, late
thought transposing my imminent
demise into the promise of
a better view is largely due
to what my father promised me
as he walked that mountain trail
some several steps before me.
Scott Cairns is Curators’ Professor of English Emeritus at University of Missouri. His poetry and essays have appeared in Poetry, Paris Review, The Atlantic Monthly, The New Republic, etc., and in multiple editions of Best American Spiritual Writing. His prose books, Short Trip to the Edge and The End of Suffering appeared in multiple printings and in Greek and Romanian translations. His recent books include Lacunae (2023), Anaphora (2019), Slow Pilgrim: The Collected Poems (2015). Most recently, his Correspondence with My Greeks appeared in 2024, and his forthcoming Makários: New Poems, will be published by Slant Books in 2026. He received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2006, and the Denise Levertov Award in 2014.