Great Regulars: The poem begins with a longing

for permanence: Let me hold inside what I learn, for experience shapes me. In leaving the water of experience--as the fish and toad do--the water clears. But it's only in returning to the water of experience, plunging back through memory--as the kingfisher does--that the mind clears. In a single instant of recall, the poem argues, we can experience all our time, all our tribe's time.

from Mary Karr: The Washington Post: Poet's Choice

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