Greetings to you little White Elephant.
You come walking across my desk.
I didn’t expect you to be so small
to be able to hold you in my palm, like this
to stroke the space between your eyes, like that
your trunk, your smooth back,
the tender edges of your ears, so fine, so delicate.
But then, your trumpeting is so loud!

Here you are White Elephant, again
in my loungeroom now, large.
Your head hits the ceiling,
your sides the wall
your trunk swings from side to side
knocking down lamps, smashing cabinets, breaking glass.
I thought you were the Great Creator, not the Great Destroyer.
How did you ever get in?
And how, now, will we get you out?
Great White Elephant.

O Great White Elephant
Please forgive me.
I have not seen you truly.
You are neither big nor small,
Not small nor big.
You are the blank canvas
The white page
The beginning, fresh always.

You are the new
The bright
The originary

White glow
White heat
Bright optimism

Creation.

White Elephant before me,
My hands in prayer.
Three times I bow my head.

Your beautiful, blemishless skin,
your clear bright eyes
stun me
with their innocence.

(Exercise 1: The Rare Art of Greeting)

Tutor's comments:

Wonderful. This works so well, so tenderly. The only thing to change is ‘blemishless’. I love having the root word blemish in there, but the word blemishless is a neologism that this poem is not ready for. Now there’s always an imaginative problem saying a word that’s got un- before it, as in unblemished, because you have to think of the blemish and then eliminate it from your thoughts. Try ‘without blemish’ – “Your beautiful skin, without blemish” might work.

Otherwise a terrific poem.