Sunday, December 7, 2014

The Pleasure of Error


 
THE PLEASURE OF ERROR - Kevin Ireland

They had said it was the worst cast
they had made in their life

But it is a mistake to imagine
that there is not all the world's
possible error in the perfect cast

Some imperceptible lift
of the breeze (plus a taste in the air,
a trick of the light, the distraction

of the trajectory of a bird 
or the fall of a leaf, the pull
of the power of the river

against the lower leg,
the balance of all known possiblities
in the mind, the tilt of the planet

on its axis, and the slight edge
of adrenalin in the muscle
that tuned the action of the rod

and the aim of the bone
that was brought down
like a catapult by nerves and sinews)

entirely misled, then corrected
the manner and direction 
in which the fly was laid down

It is only from mistakes
that we see the sense of things,
for the errors of our actions

are the source of adjustments
to knowledge and intuition
and even to the gift for making

the exceptional seem natural
Goodliness is learnt through the art 
of having buggered things up

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