The Pattern

The Pattern


by Robert Creeley


As soon as
I speak, I
speaks. It


wants to
be free but
impassive lies


in the direction
of its
words. Let


x equal x, x
also
equals x. I


speak to
hear myself
speak? I


had not thought
that some-
thing had such


undone. It
was an idea
of mine.



Robert Creeley, “The Pattern” from The Collected Poems of Robert Creeley, 1945-1975. Copyright © 1992 by the Regents of the University of California. Reprinted with the permission of the University of California Press, www.ucpress.edu.