Irreducible is what I’m after,

← v11n1, Spring 2012

which is why I cannot mind so much observing

how words are more precise or less precise, but they

are not exact. Not ever. No. And yes, each proves

solicitous and pleasant on the tongue, and more

than a little tolerant of one’s most earnest

yammering; still, the promise of each word abides

within its endless, largely inarticulate

expanse. The dancing figures of our utterance

forever spin their circles; they forever turn

upon the sawdust-littered floor. And even as

we speak we see our good intentions leaping clean

beyond our reach. And each for its duration lifts

the stillness into trouble. For its bright moment,

each obtains for us a little taste of what lit

distance we would entertain, irreducible.

So, yes, more precise or less precise, but words

are not exact.

language spirituality

Scott Cairns

Scott Cairns is the author of six collections of poems, most recently Compass of Affection (Paraclete Press, 2006). He is the translator of a collection of poetry, Love’s Immensity (Paraclete Press, 2007). He is the author of two works of nonfiction: The End of Suffering (Paraclete Press, 2009) and Short Trip to the Edge (HarperSanFransisco, 2007). His poems and essays have appeared in Poetry , Image , The Atlantic , and The New Republic , among others, and have been anthologized in multiple editions of Best American Spiritual Writing (Houghton Mifflin). Cairns received a 2006 fellowship in poetry from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. He is the director of creative writing and Catherine Paine Middlebush Professor of English at the University of Missouri, and the co-director of the MU Writing Workshops in Greece. Cairns is a visiting professor of English at Saint Katherine College in spring 2012. Photo by WT Pfefferle