Find and Uncover, Then Gather in Place

If you really wish to bring
In as much as possible
Of your world as you find it,

Then maybe don’t determine
In advance what you should be
Finding. Your experience

May be low on characters,
On adventures of its own.
Of course, feel liberated

By fiction, by any art,
To invent worlds for yourself,
But those aren’t as you found them.

What are you encountering?
It could well be stunningly
Rich in text and tedium.

You could be someone who’s lost
In an endless wilderness
Of fragmentary voices

And angelic abstractions.
Yes, as much as possible
Of the dumpster where you live

Might not appeal to others.
Can you dare to not appeal
To those whose admiration

Might be the only reason
What you found by diligence
Might be preserved beyond you?

Do your best to save your work
And plan its preservation.
But it won’t be up to you

Whether preservation works.
Leave us your experience
Of the world as you found it,

Even if it lacks appeal,
Character, faith, enchantment.
You’ve left a world, a new world—

Let others do what they will
With what you found, when and if
Anyone ever finds it.