Poem
Ruth Padel
THE FREE WILL OF AN OYSTER
THE FREE WILL OF AN OYSTER
THE FREE WILL OF AN OYSTER
Lurcher puppies, brown and gold, playing in the strawof a farmyard. Ears, teeth and tails. The individual
in society. Tussle, flight, invention, fight.
“It cannot be doubted that they have free will.
If they, then all animals – even an oyster:
whose free will must result from the limits of shell,
pulp, valve. Free will is to mind what chance
is to matter, changing the body’s arrangements.
So may free will make changes, too, in Man.”
And the mind, belvedere of the body?
“Beyond doubt, part of the process.”
No deity, no lutes of paradise. Only the smell of tall grass,
tissue adaptive as light from a star
and quick cells vivid to change in the struggle for life.
© 2009, Ruth Padel
From: Darwin: A Life in Poems
Publisher: Chatto & Windus, London
From: Darwin: A Life in Poems
Publisher: Chatto & Windus, London
Ruth Padel
(United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, 1947)
“Ruth Padel combines two major gifts. She is a distinguished poet and a quite exceptional reader of the poetry of others, with a delightful skill in explanation and the instinct of a caring, clearsighted guide to how poetry works and why it matters.”
(George Steiner)
Amongst her many plaudits, Ruth Padel was the winner of the Poetry Society’s National Poetry Competition in 1996. She was Chair of ...
(George Steiner)
Amongst her many plaudits, Ruth Padel was the winner of the Poetry Society’s National Poetry Competition in 1996. She was Chair of ...
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Poems of Ruth Padel
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THE FREE WILL OF AN OYSTER
Lurcher puppies, brown and gold, playing in the strawof a farmyard. Ears, teeth and tails. The individual
in society. Tussle, flight, invention, fight.
“It cannot be doubted that they have free will.
If they, then all animals – even an oyster:
whose free will must result from the limits of shell,
pulp, valve. Free will is to mind what chance
is to matter, changing the body’s arrangements.
So may free will make changes, too, in Man.”
And the mind, belvedere of the body?
“Beyond doubt, part of the process.”
No deity, no lutes of paradise. Only the smell of tall grass,
tissue adaptive as light from a star
and quick cells vivid to change in the struggle for life.
From: Darwin: A Life in Poems
THE FREE WILL OF AN OYSTER
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