For No Clear Reason

By Robert Creeley 1926–2005 Robert Creeley

I dreamt last night

the fright was over, that

the dust came, and then water,

and women and men, together

again, and all was quiet

in the dim moon’s light.

A paean of such patience—

laughing, laughing at me,

and the days extend over

the earth’s great cover,

grass, trees, and flower-

ing season, for no clear reason.

Robert Creeley, “For No Clear Reason” from Selected Poems of Robert Creeley. Copyright © 1991 by the Regents of the University of California. Reprinted with the permission of the University of California Press, www.ucpress.edu.

Source: Selected Poems (1991)

Biography

Once known primarily for his association with the group called the “Black Mountain Poets,” at the time of his death in 2005, Robert Creeley was widely recognized as one of the most important and influential American poets of the twentieth century. His poetry is noted for both its concision and emotional power. Albert Mobilio, writing in the Voice Literary Supplement, observed: “Creeley has shaped his own audience. The much . . .

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