Quatrain 59
Quatrain 59 of 75
“Listen again. One Evening at the Close
Of Ramazan, ere the better Moon arose,
In that old Potter's Shop I stood alone
With the clay Population round in Rows.”
Reflection · Autumn
Listen again — the again is everything. Khayyam has been listening his whole life. And now, in the potter's shop, at the close of another day, he listens one more time. The clay population round in rows is autumn's specific company: forms that once were something else, that have been shaped and hardened and put to use and are now waiting on their shelves, patient in their transformation.
The old Potter's Shop: old because it has been here longer than any of its current population, because it will be here after the current rows are broken and returned to earth.