Burning bush

Artist, dressed in a shroud,

shoes removed, carries

a burning bush; illuminates

a forest consumed by flame,

the hiding places and denials

of dark woods exposed. And so

becomes a narrator,

a storyteller, a light bearer,

a commandment carrier;

opens eyes but first

his own. Cannot look full

into the face. Only a partial view

from the back allowed.

or else death. The ground hot,

holy.

Illustration: Man the Forest by Anselm Kiefer (1971), private collection, San Francisco. This was one of the paintings included in the Anselm Kiefer exhibition at the Royal Academy of Art in London this past fall.