Samuel Beckett, Lao Tzu, and Al Jolson

by

Gary Hill

(For my daughter, Stacy)

There is a softness in a rock
like a smooth lie
a spacious emptiness
a quiet holiness
that draws me in
and I am lost in rock

Beckett placed
his rocks about Watt - Molloy
tried for symmetry
and so do I

Lao Tzu
sang of the rock as weak
and softness as strength
me too, me too

But mostly
I just love to
rock-a-bye my baby.