Louise Bourgeois at the Guggenheim*

What have I for you today?
What have you for me?
What has it for us to say
it hasn’t said? Can we

commence again to contemplate
how much we do not know? –
attain the strength to tolerate
the great abashing glow

of this chaotic universe
which doesn’t seem to care
if we respond with tune or curse
or show of savoir-faire?

Remind me what we’re doing here –
do you recall just what
we stopped pursuing late last year
or late last night? Ah! – but! –

let’s not forget the fun we had
this best of afternoons
of going uptown to the sad
and beautiful saloons

and cut-up bodies and old doors
and marble genitals –
the woven alchemy that pours
out of the bends and pulls

of that nonagenarian
whose dark je ne sais quoi
brings light to the contrarian:
the stark Louise Bourgeois.

* http://www.newsweek.com/id/140278?tid=relatedcl