Brian Henry

REMAINDER

I doubt myself and bring myself to account
But refuse to admit what I refuse to confess.
I take my self to task and call my self out.

I’ve craved a life without regret or doubt,
A life where each misstep has no witness.
I doubt myself and bring myself to account.

I’ve always preferred the whisper to the shout,
Have always despised the sound of excess.
I take my self to task and call my self out.

As a child I sought a way to be devout
Because I desired answers, and forgiveness.
I doubt myself and bring myself to account.

The measure of a life is not an amount.
I disgrace whatever I try to possess.
I take my self to task and call my self out.

There is no I here to ignore, no I to discount.
I am merely the place where thinking or feeling is.
I take my self to task and call my self out.
I doubt myself and bring myself to account.  

The line “I am merely the place
where thinking or feeling is” is from
Fernando Pessoa’s “Legion Live in Us,”
translated by Jonathan Griffin.

BRIAN HENRY is the author of eleven books of poetry and the recent prose book Things Are Completely Simple: Poetry and Translation (Parlor). He is editing and translating Tomaž Šalamun’s Selected Poems 1964-2014 for Milkweed Editions.