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" Man is not to direct or to be directed anymore than a tree or a cloud or a stone

Man is not to rule or be ruled anymore than a faith or a truth or a love

Man is not to doubt or to be doubted anymore than a wave or a seed or a fire

There is no problem in living which life hasn't answered to its own need

And we cannot direct, rule, or doubt what is beyond our highest ability to understand we can only be humble before it we can only worship ourselves because we are a part of it

The eye in the leaf is watching out of our fingers
The ear in the stone is listening through our voices
The thought of the wave is thinking in our dreams
The faith of the seed is building with our deaths "

Kenneth Patchen , Collected Poems


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Kenneth Patchen quote : Man is not to direct or to be directed anymore than a tree or a cloud or a stone<br /><br />Man is not to rule or be ruled anymore than a faith or a truth or a love<br /><br />Man is not to doubt or to be doubted anymore than a wave or a seed or a fire<br /><br />There is no problem in living which life hasn't answered to its own need<br /><br />And we cannot direct, rule, or doubt what is beyond our highest ability to understand we can only be humble before it we can only worship ourselves because we are a part of it<br /><br />The eye in the leaf is watching out of our fingers<br />The ear in the stone is listening through our voices<br />The thought of the wave is thinking in our dreams<br />The faith of the seed is building with our deaths