Zeno sent
his arrow flying
endlessly from point
to point along its arc
to make a point
about eternity:
getting there is tricky.
That’s what I think
anyway, as snowflakes
stall in the morning’s
freezing air
like seed fluff
reluctant to drop
anchor in the ice.
I’m watching that
tentative descent
though I’m in motion
and counter-motion
even as I follow
my pen’s blue notes
and think I’m not—
not doing anything,
not going anywhere
much farther
than my own flight
across the blank
momentum
of the turning page.
By Mark Jarman, Centennial Professor of English, emeritus
Mark Jarman’s most recent books are the poetry collection The Heronry and the essay collection Dailiness: Essays on Poetry. “The Arrow Paradox” appeared in the June 2021 issue of The Atlantic.